The Scream Team
by Just Another Angry Feminist
Summary: After the tragic death of her mother, Gwen Kasey is sent to live with the father that never wanted her in Lakewood, California. She ends up getting involved in hunting down the infamous Brandon James with her new friends. With that and her feelings for Noah, she's in over her head...but then again, who isn't in Lakewood?
1. Chapter 1

**I'm in love with Noah Foster's character so this story was born! I hope you guys like it!**

* * *

I didn't know who my father was until I was twelve years old and didn't meet him until I moved in with him when I was sixteen. I would've been content never meeting the man who walked out before I was born, but fate had a different idea. Mom was coming home from a girls' weekend in Aspen when her car hit black ice and collided with a tree head on, dying before she got to the hospital.

After the funeral, I was shipped out to Lakewood, California to live with my father and his new family. I guess he could have one with another woman –mom and I just weren't good enough. I'm sure he loved that I was coming to live with him, the mistake he wished he could forget coming into his new, perfect life. He couldn't hide that we were related now, he was the only relative I had left and the only option I had to avoid foster care for the next two years.

Lakewood, California was a small town where everyone knew each other for their entire lives. It was suburbia, with the exception of a couple sporadic mansion-sized houses. My father happened to be one of the people that owned a mansion, a shock to me because I had no idea he had that kind of money. I guess that's what happens when a man is a mystery for most of your life. Mom didn't try to get child support from him, she always said it was too difficult and I didn't push the subject.

My room was on the second floor across from his other daughter's. She was fourteen and the cliché, spoiled girl from every movie I've ever seen. She had everything she ever wanted and more, but that was nothing compared to his sixteen year old son. He was the biggest asshole I've ever met, the true definition of fuckboy. I've been here two days and already seen him sneak three different girls out of the house. The two of them completely ignored my existence constantly.

My dad tried to talk to me a couple times, but I kept all my answers short and to the point. I was never rude to anyone, I was just less than welcoming. They were as upset with my presence as I was with theirs, I'm sure. I was the daughter tarnishing their sparkling reputation. The quicker I got out of their hair, the better for everyone involved.

School was an interesting ordeal for me. I'd been with the same kids my entire life so jumping into a new pool was weird. These kids grew up together and I was the weird new kid trying to find my place among them. I guess it was helpful that I wasn't the only transfer kid, Kieran Wilcox was a lot more mysterious than me so most of the attention was on him.

Unfortunately, the first day I walked in, all eyes were on me and it was terrifying. Then Kieran walked in and they moved to him and stayed there, making the iron grip around my lungs loosen. My locker was beside a girl named Audrey Jensen's and she and I became fast friends. Along with her best friend Noah Foster, I actually had people to sit with at lunch and walk to class with.

The three of us fell into an awkward but compatible friendship that I was more than grateful for. The last thing I wanted was to be the weird outcast girl without friends. I was already the pariah of my house, I'd hate to be the one at school too. Noah even voluntarily came to pick me up for school every morning because he lived a few blocks away.

I came downstairs Tuesday morning and saw the family sitting down for breakfast. They didn't wait for me to come down to start and figured they didn't want me to join. I quietly went to the door and waited on the step for Noah's Nissan to pull into the driveway. The second he did, I jogged to the passenger side and shut the door behind me.

"Morning going that good?" he asked, smirking at my dramatics as he backed out.

"There's was a family breakfast like I was on an episode of _Full House_ ," I groaned, sitting my backpack by my feet in the floorboard and putting on my seatbelt. "Needless to say, I wasn't invited."

I expected him to start rambling about me thinking too much about things, but he didn't. Instead of taking the turn to school, he kept going straight and pulled into the McDonald's drive thru. What was this kid doing?

"Foster, what are you doing?" I asked, looking at him with pursed lips.

"Getting us breakfast…duh!" he replied like it was obvious. "Can't send you to school hungry, wouldn't be humane."

I fussed with him about it, but he just shushed me and ordered two sausage McMuffins for us with hashbrowns. I huffed and focused on my phone. I got on Facebook and saw a link reappearing all over my timeline, clicking on it and waiting. Imagine my surprise when Audrey popped up on the screen making out with some random girl in a car. It didn't look like she was aware she was being filmed and my stomach started knotting up, this wasn't going to end well.

"Noah!" I exclaimed, hitting his shoulder and almost causing him to spill orange juice all over the guy in the window. "Holy shit! Have you seen this?!"

"What? Me almost giving that guy a bath in vitamin c?" he exclaimed, sitting the juice down before pulling out of the drive thru. "I bought you breakfast and you almost get me beat up? That's not a very good thank you."

Instead of zinging him back, I held the phone out in front of his face. He took my wrist in his hand and moved it back until he could see the video on the screen. His jaw dropped and his eyes widened –I guess he hadn't seen the video either. By the look of things, he also didn't know Audrey was into girls...that made two of us.

"We don't say anything unless she brings it up. Agreed?" he asked, locking eyes with me after he paused the video.

I nodded my head and locked my phone. "Agreed."

* * *

We were talking about the Hitchcock marathon on TV last night when the hallway went silent. I glanced over at the main doors and saw Audrey standing there. A look of sheer panic crossed her face before it was immediately covered with her cool and collected mask.

She leisurely walked over to us, trying to look as normal as possible. The people staring immediately dissolved into whispers and I knew they'd all seen the video. I couldn't imagine what Audrey felt right now, the whole world knew her secret. A secret Noah didn't even know and he was her absolute best friend.

"Ah, the lady of the hour," Noah announced, making me slap the back of his head.

"Today is going to suck exceptionally hard," she replied, wincing at all the whispers.

"Why? It's taco Tuesday," I said, trying to keep up the façade of we hadn't seen the video. "You LOVE taco Tuesday."

She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest. "Come on, the two of you suck at playing coy. Let it out."

"Seriously? The socially awkward catholic school film geek is your lesbian lover, and I have to find out on YouTube?" Noah asked. Then he wrapped her arm around my shoulders and added, "That's how we have to find out?"

So that was the girl Audrey was making out with! I'd heard random tidbits about Rachel Murray around school but never from Audrey herself. The girl was apparently really weird and awkward with no friends…but I didn't know her.

"I call best friend foul," she replied, holding up her hands in a surrender motion. "I didn't make the video."

I knew I wasn't entitled to know everything about her life, I've only been here this year. I don't know how long she and Noah have been friends just that it's a lot longer than us. Noah's arm was still around my shoulders, but I didn't say anything about it –despite the butterflies fluttering around.

Noah was actually really cute, when you got around his weird obsession with serial killers. He would do stuff like buy me breakfast or listen to me complain about my family problems on the phone at two am. I guess to him it was just what friends did for each other, but I've never had friends like that before. It was pretty safe to say I'd developed a little crush on him…but I hadn't breathed a word of it to anyone.

Noah laughed and squeezed my shoulder before dropping his arm. "Yeah, lack of production value made that pretty clear to us."

"Yeah, way too shaky for an Audrey Jensen film," I added, winking at her playfully.

"But if we could just move right on back to the whole lesbian thing…" Noah asked, waggling his eyebrows before leaning back against the lockers with me.

Audrey's hands flew up in a stopping motion and quickly said, "Okay, not a lesbian, not discussing it!"

The lull in our conversation let the outside into our little circle. People were still whispering about Audrey like she wasn't here to hear it. I couldn't believe people were being so rude, even if we were in high school. It was ridiculously immature. Someone even pointed out where she was standing to make it more obvious they were talking about her.

"And that's your choice, but can we do anything to help you?" I asked, reaching out and giving her hand a reassuring squeeze before letting it drop when someone snickered.

"Can you get the video taken down?" she asked hopefully –mostly looking at Noah, resident tech wizard.

"Well, it's already been yanked, probably flagged for content or something," he replied. "I tried tracing it when Gwen and I got to school but the email from the link is just a dummy account."

"Thanks for trying," she said, wrapping an arm around each of our necks and hugging us close.

"Screw everybody and there stupid opinions," I replied. "I still think you're rad, even if you might like girls that are super artsy and catholic."

"You're such a doofus," she said, pushing my shoulder playfullly.

* * *

Class let out and I saw Noah's lanky body weaving through the crowd in the hallway to get to me. We had English with Audrey next and usually met up to walk there together. He smiled when he saw me and my stomach did strange things, but I pushed that down.

We walked into the classroom together and sat in our usual seats. Audrey was already in hers with a couple people staring like she was an art exhibit. I rolled my eyes, lesbians were a normal part of life –but by all means let's stare holes into the poor girl.

"Cavemen made fires. Those fires cast shadows and those shadows created fear," Mr. Branson said, drawing everyone's attention to him in the front of the classroom. "Men have been obsessed with scaring each other ever since."

"Brooke, would you please tell us which genre originated with _The Castle of Oranto_?" he asked, noting that she was talking to Jake Fitzgerald instead of listening to his lecture.

She looked up at him leisurely and smiled, "The castle genre?"

Noah snorted before he replied, "The Gothic genre."

"Thank you, Noah," Mr. Branson said, smirking at Brooke before going back to addressing the whole class. "Guys, look, I get it. Nobody wants to sit around reading 500 dusty pages about monks and curses, but nobody's forcing you to watch _The Walking Dead_."

"Is _The Walking Dead_ on the midterm?" Jake asked, his eyes shining with hope and making me role mine yet again.

"Zombies aren't literature, Jake," Riley laughed, making Noah's eyebrows raise and his body lean forward to get closer to her.

Oh, did I not mention that he's totally in love with Riley Marra? The smartest girl at George Washington High that also happened to be gorgeous and more popular than anyone had a right to be. It wasn't even fair because the girl was actually kind of nice, especially compared to Nina and Brooke –resident dragon ladies.

"Why not?" the new kid, Kieran, asked. "George Romero, Horace Walpole, it's all the same bones."

"Or rotting flesh," Noah added with a smile.

"Kieran's right, Gothic genre is all over television right now," Mr. Branson replied. "You have _American Horror Story_ , you have _Bates Motel_ , _Hannibal_."

"What about _Texas Chainsaw_ or _Halloween_?" Riley asked.

"Those are actually slasher movies," I replied, making people look at me curiously. "You can't exactly make a slasher movie into a TV series…"

"Gwen's right, it wouldn't be logical. You know the girl and her friends arrive at the dance, the camp, the deserted town, whatever; killer takes them out one by one," Noah said, taking up where I trailed off. "90 minutes later, the sun comes up as survivor girl's sitting in the back of the ambulance watching her friends' bodies being wheeled past covered in sheets on stretchers."

"Slasher movies burn too bright and too fast to ever be stretched out into a successful TV show," I finished, returning Noah's smile when he flashed it at me.

"You know, by the time the first body's found, it's only a matter of time before the bloodbath commences."

Before anyone could reply to Noah's macabre statement, the PA system crackled to life. "Students, I'm sure most of you have received news of the recent death of Nina Patterson. Classes are dismissed, everyone is to line up in the lobby for their turn with the grief counselors."

Nina Patterson was dead?! I mean, I didn't like the girl, but she didn't deserve to die! I looked over at her group of friends and didn't really see any devastation. I saw some confusion, but that was it. That kind of made sense, I was in shock when the state trooper told me about my mom. Then I had a total meltdown at the funeral and broke four vases and a podium, but that's not the point. Grief wasn't everyone's automatic emotion when something tragic happened, sometime it took a while.

"Well, class, do as Principal Showalter says," Mr. Branson said, stepping back behind his desk and allowing us to leave the classroom. "I'm here if anyone needs to talk about anything, I'll see you all tomorrow."

I felt a hand touching mine and glanced down to see Noah's fingers sliding into the spaces between mine. I glanced up and saw him looking around for Audrey. He just grabbed my hand without thinking, it was just a friendly gesture and nothing more. Don't think too much into it, Gwen, it never ends well.

"So the wicked witch is finally dead?" Audrey asked, falling into step with us on my other side. "Is it time for the munchfolk to rejoice?"

I just shrugged as Noah sat in one of the chairs in the lobby. Audrey eyed our hands with raised brows, but she didn't ask any questions. I perched on the table on his left while she sat on the one on his right. Noah's hand was still holding mine loosely like he didn't realize he was doing it. Then Riley and the other popular kids sat down in the free chairs and he dropped it like a hot potato. Damn, that kind of hurt a little.

"This Wi-Fi sucks," Jake complained like he didn't even notice we were sitting here too. "The cops aren't saying much either."

"Her mom found the body," Brooke supplied, not even bothering to keep her voice hushed. "Apparently the victim of foul play."

"That's not enough, I need gory details," Jake said, making Brooke scoff and slap his chest with the back of her hand.

One of the office assistants walked by and Noah asked, "Excuse me, ma'am, why am I here?"

"That's the "mandatory" part of mandatory grief counseling," she replied sassily.

"No, but seriously, I feel shock, mild interest, but not grief," he replied pointlessly.

Jake spoke again, loud enough for us all to hear. "One of Nina's neighbors tweeted that her throat was sliced ear to ear. The press is all over this, they're playing the whole "Brandon James is back" angle."

"Brandon James is dead," Riley said dismissively.

I raised my eyebrows curiously and asked, "Who's Brandon James?"

"He killed a bunch of kids 20 years ago, cut up some others," Noah explained, then showed me his phone. "This is him."

"Emma's dad got stabbed," Jake said, still lacking the ability to be subtle in the slightest. "He almost died."

Emma and Will weren't with the others, I figured they were off "comforting" each other somewhere else. I've only been here part of a semester and knew they were going to get married. They were totally the "it" couple, the one that was too strong to be broken.

"Brandon had proteus syndrome, like the elephant man," Noah continued like he hadn't been interrupted. "People say he was born a monster, but I think he was bullied and beaten into one."

"And you know all this why…?" Brooke asked, looking down her nose at Noah.

"I don't know; some people like sports, I like serial killers," he shrugged, no embarrassment in his tone. "And Brandon James is my Dallas Cowboys.

"He was a classic case of the deformed kid who lived in the shed. Mom homeschooled him, dad was ashamed of him. His older brother, Troy, was the only one who cared about him. Whenever he went out, he wore a post-op surgical mask," Noah continued. "They tried to fix his face a few times, never really worked."

"What made him start killing people?" Riley asked curiously.

"Rumor is he fell in love, his brother said Brandon was obsessed. Wrote her anonymous love letters, made her little carvings," Noah explained. "Brandon found her at the Halloween dance and got up the nerve to talk to her. Then a bunch of drunk jocks jumped him, they thought they were saving her from a monster. After a lifetime of taking it, something in Brandon snapped, killed five students by the time he was done.

"The manhunt ended at Wren Lake, the girl agreed to meet him. Nobody ever knew who she was."

* * *

"The wicked witch of the east is throwing a vigil party for the wicked witch of the west and I got an invite," Audrey said, flopping down on the couch by me as Noah placed comic books on the shelves.

"Brooke's throwing a rager and her friend just died? That's evil, even for her," I remarked, placing my feet on the table in front of me. "Isn't it supposed to be a prayer thing for Nina's "friends"?"

"Are you honestly surprised? Those hyenas would do anything to get drunk and dry hump each other in slightly dark corners of Brooke's living room," Audrey replied, placing her feet like mine.

"The real question is how do you know about the party?" Noah asked, coming up and leaning on the couch behind us.

"I actually got an invite from the social circle itself," she replied coolly, but I pushed her foot with mine and she told the whole truth. "Emma felt sorry for me because of my softcore porn debut and invited me."

"Are you going to go?" I asked, pulling out my trigonometry book and starting on my homework.

"Not a snowball's chance in hell," she said, slapping palms with me before getting her own trig book and working on the same homework.

"Hey, guys, don't jump to conclusions. It's not every day we get invited to the cool kids' parties," Noah argued, rushing back over to us. "Don't make too hasty a decision…"

* * *

 **If you liked this, maybe drop a review and tell me what you think.**


	2. Chapter 2

**I ACTUALLY GOT A REVIEW FOR THIS STORY AND I'M SO EXCITED!**

 **THANKS FOR LIKING MY STORY MEANGIRL8!**

* * *

Noah Foster is very convincing when he tries to be. I was dead set on not going to that stupid party, but all he had to do was give me the "puppy dog eyes" and I was a total goner. I'm sure Audrey knew about my thing for him by now, but she never questioned it. I think that was why our friendship worked so well, she didn't pry.

I caught a ride with Audrey home and realized my house was empty. There wasn't even a note on the fridge, everyone was just gone. You'd think that with some psychopathic killer on the loose, they'd be a bit more careful, but I guess not.

"Do they leave and not tell you where they're going a lot?" Audrey asked, following me into the kitchen.

I grabbed two juices out of the fridge and tossed her one. "I guess I started it. I never tell them when I leave for school or to hang out with you guys. They probably think I'm not interested in being part of their family…like they even want me to be."

"What's that supposed to mean?" she asked, hoping up onto the counter and grabbing an apple from the bowl by her hip.

"I didn't even know who the man was until I was twelve, didn't meet him until I moved here right before school started," I started, sitting on one of the stools by her swinging legs. "I'm like a smudge on their silver spoon, man."

She laughed at that. "They're not going to try if they don't think you're trying, too."

That made sense, but it wasn't something I really wanted to do. I just wanted us to keep existing in our own spheres and only communicating when it was mandatory. I tried to not think about how sad that sounded… but even I knew it was pretty pathetic.

"I guess I should head home and start getting ready for this party," she said about twenty minutes later. "Thanks for the juice and the apple. I'll see you at nine, Noah's picking up both of us."

I saluted her playfully before heading upstairs to my bedroom to pick out my outfit. I didn't want to go to this party, but that didn't mean I wasn't going to be hot at it. I put music on and turned it up as I looked through my closet for the perfect outfit.

I was singing to Halsey as I curled my hair when I heard a knock on my door. I placed the wand on my vanity before walking to it with my eyebrows raised. No one ever came up to my room to talk to me, they just shouted at me for dinner.

My little sister Sophia was standing there with a bored expression on her face. "Dad wants to talk to you and you weren't answering when he called."

I glanced back to make sure my wand wouldn't catch anything on fire before going downstairs. Dad and Elizabeth, my stepmom, were sitting at the kitchen table. I pulled my shirt down until it touched the top of my pants and pulled my kimono tighter around my middle before walking over to them.

"Sophia said you wanted to see me?" I asked, crossing my arms and trying to not seem freaked.

"Yes, we wanted to talk to you about that girl who was murdered," Elizabeth said, gesturing for me to sit across from them. "Nina, I believe it was."

"Yeah, Nina Patterson, I'm actually going to her wake tonight," I said, crossing my legs and anxiously tapping my foot.

"Do you want to talk to someone about it? It's a rather traumatic ordeal," she continued, placing her hand over dad's and looking at me with concern. "It was pretty brutal and they suspect that other boy, Tyler something, of doing it. Do you know both of them?"

Tyler O'Neill was Nina's on again off again boyfriend. It wasn't really surprising they thought he did it, the two of them fought like crazy. I'd watched enough crime shows and horror movies to know the significant other was always the first one they questioned. It was even sketchier that Tyler was missing now…

"Yeah, they're both in my class," I said dismissively. "I haven't been there long enough to really know them that much. I was a little shocked, I guess, but I'm not devastated or anything. They were kind of strangers…"

I saw discontentment flash across both their faces and realized how crass that sounded. I was about to backtrack when Jackson, my stepbrother, walked into the kitchen.

"Nina and Tyler were popular and Gwen hangs with the lesbian and the weird horror movie loser. Neither of them knew she existed," he explained, biting into an apple.

"Jackson Oliver!" Elizabeth hissed, narrowing her eyes at him.

"He's right, I'm not popular like him and Sophia," I sighed, shrugging my shoulders. "Can I go back upstairs? I have to finish getting ready to meet up with Noah and Audrey."

They nodded and I jogged back upstairs thankfully. It was weird enough talking to the grief counselors at school, I really didn't want to talk to them about everything. I didn't know Nina or Tyler personally and I wasn't deeply troubled that she was dead. I was sad on a distant level that you always were when you heard someone died, but not on a close level.

I finished curling my hair and sprayed it before doing my eyeliner. I pulled on my flats and kimono just as Noah texted me he was outside. I grabbed my bag and shoved my phone in it, rushing downstairs to meet up with him. He got me first so I got to ride in the passenger seat when we went to pick up Audrey.

"Are you seriously wearing a cardigan to this thing?" I mused, grinning at his choice of attire. "Who are you? Mr. Rogers?"

It was dark in the car, but I saw his cheeks dust pink. "I like to not follow the social norms of teens. Have you not noticed that yet?"

I laughed despite myself and said, "Trust me, everyone in Lakewood has noticed that you don't follow norms. You're obsessed with serial killers and the history of Lakewood…that's not normal."

He pulled into Audrey's drive and turned to face me. "Listen, I disclosed all this at the beginning of our friendship. I gave you a get out of jail card and you gave it back. There's no getting out alive now."

I rolled my eyes and stuck my tongue out at him playfully. "I don't know if I was made aware of just how far you stray from the norm…"

"Hey, hi, I'm Audrey and I need you to stop flirting. It's gross and I don't want to vomit," she announced as she got into the backseat.

It was my turn to blush as I turned back around quickly and put my seatbelt back on. I heard Noah muttering under his breath and figured he was flustered, too. I was flirting with him, but it never once struck me that he was flirting back. I just took that as his personality to be honest.

"So are we seriously going to this party, wake thing?" Audrey asked a few awkward minutes later. "Like, seriously going into a party after I've become a pop culture phenomenon?"

"Yes. We're going to show them you're not afraid of a little video," Noah argued, meeting her eyes in the rearview mirror. "Plus Gwen's stomach's out, you're not going to be the center of attention. Stop being selfish!"

My face got even hotter than before as I struggled to pull my shirt down again. "Shut up!"

There were cars parked in every available crevice possible around the house. Luckily, Noah's car was pretty small and fit easily in tiny places. I wasn't feeling walking too far to get to the lake house in the shoes I had on. They were cute, not practical.

We walked to the house together and I linked arms with Audrey. She smiled at me thankfully as Noah opened the door and all eyes flashed to us. The only sound was the thumping music, everyone else fell silent as they saw Audrey.

Emma came out of the woodwork and rushed over to Audrey, trying to diffuse the tension of the room. "Hi, Audrey. How are you?"

Audrey actually laughed, but she didn't move away from Noah and me. "Good, thanks, Um, you know Noah and this is Gwen."

I nodded at her with tight lips, but Noah couldn't keep his mouth shut. "I have a little place just like this in the Hamptons."

Emma laughed awkwardly before leading us deeper into the party. "Food and drinks are over there. Suits are in the cabana if you want to swim."

We'd made our way out near the pool and Jake Fitzgerald came out of the shadows. He eyed me disgustingly before looking at Audrey and saying, "But suits are completely optional, especially for the blonde."

"You do know I'm the one who kissed a girl, right?" Audrey asked, taking the attention away from me as I flushed in embarrassment. "Uh, you know, star of the viral video?"

"Refresh my memory, kiss your friend," Jake sneered, still looking at me hungrily.

I huffed and wrapped my kimono tighter around me. "Can you go be a total skeeze somewhere else? I don't want to lose any brain cells breathing the same air as you."

"Fiesty! I like that," he remarked before Emma shoved him away and he went to find another innocent girl to prey on.

"I'm going inside to find something to drink," Audrey announced, leaving me and Noah outside with an awkward Emma.

"I think I saw Will come in behind you. I'm going to find him, but just come find me if you need anything," she smiled before excusing herself and leaving us alone.

"You seriously owe me for this," I replied, wrapping my arms over my stomach. "I feel like I need a shower after the way Jake looked at me…and penicillin."

"I can take you home, if you want. I don't want you to be uncomfortable all night," he said, moving closer to me and rubbing his hands up and down my arms. "Audrey's got tequila and something to prove, she won't even notice we're gone for a second or two."

Warmth blossomed in my stomach and filled my body. "You're sweet, but we're already here. Let's just go in and make a couple rounds."

He wrapped an arm around my shoulder and walked into the house. He found the alcohol table and I took his keys from his pocket as he grabbed a beer. I wasn't a drinker so I was going to be DD tonight. I followed Noah to the couch and sat beside him, watching everyone interacting drunkenly with everyone else.

Noah's eyes landed on the alcohol table again and he was on his feet in a couple seconds. I followed his gaze and saw Riley Marra standing there. I sighed and pushed up, going back outside where there were less people. Audrey and Emma seemed to be having a moment by the pool so I made my way over to the chaise lounge chair.

I checked all my social media sites and locked my phone, sliding it back into my purse. Then I remembered how Noah looked at Riley and wanted to drink. Audrey didn't seem like she wanted to get too drunk anymore so I went over to her and Emma.

"Can I trade you the car keys for your tequila?" I asked, handing the keys out to her. "Noah's already drinking and I don't want to be sober anymore, but I get it if you don't either."

"Riley's cute, I think you deserve this tequila more than me," she said, switching the liquor for the keys. "Don't do anything stupid, don't drown, and don't fuck Jake Fitzgerald."

I gagged and made the both of them laugh. "Trust me, I'd rather take a nap at the bottom of the swimming pool than touch him."

I twisted the top off the bottle and took a drink to punctuate my point. It was bitter and burned all the way down, but the first drink made my vision blurry. This was EXACTLY what I wanted to do tonight.

* * *

I ventured inside sometime later and flopped carelessly onto the couch. Noah was in the middle of talking and looked like he was a lot drunker than I was. I saw the others eyeing him with smiles and I knew they were planning something, I was just too drunk to figure out what.

"I'm just saying, it's crazy that we were talking about slasher movies in language arts and then Nina got slashed," he slurred drunkenly, making me flinch and everyone else laugh nervously.

"Technically she was already dead when we started that conversation, so there's no direct correlation," Riley said, looking at Noah with a little fear in her eyes.

"Dude, she's scared. Don't negate that," some random guy said, sitting on the arm of the couch beside me.

"I'm not scared," Riley argued, crossing her arms over her chest in defiance.

"Maybe we should all be afraid, bunch of drunk teenagers at a party by the lake where your homegrown killer died," Noah said, not missing a single beat even drunk. "It's a natural slasher setting…"

Thankfully everyone's attention slowly left all of us, tired of Noah's drunken ramblings. "I'm going to go get you some water. You're going to be majorly hungover in the morning."

It took a couple tries, but I finally got up and went to the kitchen. I went to the fridge and grabbed a couple bottles of water. I was stupid to get drunk, Noah was in no way obligated to have feelings for me because I had them for him. It was so petty, I was a bigger person than that.

I didn't realize I was gone that long, but when I got back to the living room Noah was nowhere in sight. He looked like he was about to pass out so I was a little freaked. I ran outside to see if he was with Audrey, but she was sitting by the pool on her phone.

"Audrey, Noah's missing and drunk off his ass. We've got to find him," I breathed out, pretty much sober now. "PS, tell Rachel I said hi."

She rolled her eyes and hung up, leaving out my greeting. "He probably got up and stumbled until he fell and passed out somewhere."

"Hello?!" someone shouted from out at the lake and sounded a lot like Noah.

I grabbed Audrey's hand and we carefully made our way out there, trying to not fall over all the rocks and roots. There was a couple people gathered around the dock laughing and I saw someone standing out in the middle of the water. I wasn't as smart as Noah, but I knew that was him out there on that fishing dock.

"What the hell? Why is he out there?" I asked, leaning down to pull off my shoes and get into the lake to go help him and saw Audrey doing the same thing.

"Wait, I've got it," Kieran said, bursting through the gathering crowd with Emma on his heels. "Hold my jacket."

He dove smoothly into the water and swam over to the dock, but Noah was already in the water. The poor kid was in his underwear and probably freezing. Maybe it taught him not to drink too much at a party full of pretty much strangers…I know that's what it taught me.

The two of them were almost back to us when Noah started struggling to stay on top of the water. I grabbed Audrey's hand in mine and she squeezed it tightly. These two were actually my best friends and I've only been here a couple months.

Kieran made it to the ladder on the end of the dock and the two of us rushed over to help Noah up. Emma gave Audrey a blanket and she wrapped it around his shoulders and Emma put the other one around Kieran. I tried to rub warmth back into Noah as he shivered violently between the two of us.

"Yo, kiss him, blondie! Breath of life," Jake shouted, making a couple people laugh.

"He could've died, you Neanderthal!" I shouted back, making him hold up his hands in surrender and taking a mocking step back.

"Hey, he was the first one to pass out! You're new around here, but there's a tradition here at Wren Lake," he explained like it made a difference.

Kieran crouched down by us and Noah forced words out of his chattering teeth. "What was that that grabbed me?"

"Nobody grabbed you, spaz," Audrey said nervously, ruffling his hair.

"You were stuck on fishing line." Emma said dismissively, rubbing Kieran's' arms like I was rubbing Noah's.

"It didn't feel like fishing line," he muttered as we helped him stand back up. "It felt like someone was pulling me down..."

We were walking way when Audrey basically spat at Emma. "Your friends are great, Emma. Thanks for the invite, we had an awesome time."

Audrey took Noah to his car and I grabbed his clothes from beside the dock. He redressed shakily and sat in the backseat broodily as Audrey drove. I volunteered to walk home after I made sure Noah was safe, but he quickly disagreed and fought until I agreed to let him drive home –as long as he texted me that he was safe when he got there.

It was easier to get up to my room than I thought it would be. You'd think my family would be more vigilante about me being home considering a girl died this morning… I guess I really was just a smudge on their silver spoon.

I waited until Noah texted me that he was home and sent me a picture of him with his bed to get in the shower. As soon as my head hit my pillow, I was out like a light. Drinking always did that to me –so did stress.

* * *

"Hey, Noah Foster, right?" the sheriff asked, making me pause in my recollection of Noah's drunk shenanigans from last night to Audrey.

"Uh, yeah, guilty," he said, the winced when he realized his poor wording choice. "Well, I mean, not _guilty_ , but… Yes?"

"I hear you have a particular interest in Brandon James," he continued, ignoring Noah's word vomit.

"I have a lot of interests…"

"You mind stopping by the station tomorrow morning before school, answer a couple questions?" it was phrased as a question, but we all knew it wasn't optional.

"Will do, Chief."

"What was all that about?" Audrey asked after the sheriff left us all alone again.

"I guess that means they're not as sure Tyler's the killer as everyone's letting on," I replied, tugging on the straps of my backpack nervously. "Maybe he's gonna question everybody…"

"Yeah, and the genius IQ outcast with the serial killer fetish seemed to be the best first option," Noah finished, smiling sheepishly at the two of us.

"He couldn't possible think you're capable of killing Nina!" I exclaimed, the thought of Noah hurting anyone beyond crazy to me.

"Why not? I hate the way she treated Audrey," he reasoned, shrugging his shoulder nonchalantly.

Audrey's smile was full of chagrin when she hit her knuckles against Noah's. I turned to open my locker and heard Audrey's boots clicking away from us. I figured Noah went with her so imagine my surprise when I felt him touch my shoulder timidly.

"Hey, I'm sorry if I made you mad sometimes last night. I feel like you could cut the tension between us with a knife, no pun intended," he smirked, leaning against the locker beside mine.

He did upset me, but he'd hurt my feelings not pissed me off. "No, things are fine. I'm just nervous lately because of everything happening, I guess."

He opened his arms to me awkwardly and I stepped into them, wrapping my arms around his slender waist. His hands rested on the small of my back and made me smile. Guys like Jake would've pushed that hug and tried to grab my ass, but Noah's hands were still in respectable places.

I'd just stepped out of Noah's embrace when Riley appeared out of nowhere. "Hey, I had a question, but if you're busy…"

"No, it's cool. Ask away, I have class," I said, trying my best to hide my disappointment.

"Does Tyler really kill Nina, or is Brandon James really back?" she asked, her eyes big and her voice anxious.

"Uh, you know, you got to remember that the whodunit may not be as important in our story," Noah smiled, ever the storyteller.

"So, it's more of a "why"dunit?" Riley asked –oh my god, she was actually flirting back with Noah!

"No, I'm saying you need to forget it's a horror story that someone might die at every turn," he continued, oblivious to her flirting. "You see, you have to care if the smokin' hot lit teacher seems a little too interested in his female students. You have to care if the team wins the big game…"

His eyes searched the hallway for another horror movie trope and landed on Emma. "You have to care if the smart, pretty girl forgives the dumb jock."

"This sounds like a TV show!" I said, looking at him skeptically.

"That's what I was thinking! Just like _Friday Night Lights_!" Riley exclaimed happily.

"Exactly! You root for them, you love them," Noah replied, feeding off her excitement. "So when they're brutally murdered…it hurts."

I rolled my eyes at his dramatics and closed my locker. I nodded my goodbyes to them and left them to it, seeing him flirt with her wasn't on my list of things to do on a Wednesday morning. I hefted my bag higher onto my shoulder and walked to class.

* * *

 **I've made a collection of outfits for Gwen on polyvore, the link's on my profile...**


	3. Chapter 3

**There may only be two of you, but y'all are the best readers! You review the chapters and make me feel good about my writing! I was really iffy about posting this, but now I know it's good. Thank you.**

* * *

Nina Patterson died four days ago and people were still gossiping about who did it. I rode to school with Sophia and Jackson this morning because Noah had to go talk to the sheriff, and they were even talking about it. Jackson I understood, it wasn't exactly a secret they slept together, but Sophia wasn't even in high school yet and knew everything. I guess drama knew no grade level.

"Thanks for the ride," I said after Jackson parked in the student lot.

"Like I had a choice," he muttered before jogging away to join his jock friends.

Great talking to you, bro. It's good to know you hate me as much as everyone else in the family hates me. I was chewing my lip to pieces when I got my books out of my locker. I knew Audrey was right the other day when she said I wasn't trying either, but it was really hard to do. My mom died and they didn't even try to comfort me, they just expected me to be fine.

I reached up and grasped the moon pendant hanging around my neck. My mom had the sun that attached to it, she was even buried with it on. I felt the familiar burn behind my eyes and the tightness in my throat that told me I was about to have a complete breakdown. I slammed my locker and walked as quickly as I could around the corner of the school and slid down the wall, covering my mouth with my hand to hold in my sobs.

My whole life it was just me and my mom because dad walked out before I was born. Even as a kid, I knew to never ask about him –she would tell me when she was ready. That happened when I was twelve and she told me the whole truth about the entire situation. He didn't want to be a dad or believe that he even WAS my dad. The truth just brought us closer and made it even more devastating when I lost her.

"Hey, are you okay?" Audrey asked, sitting beside me against the wall.

"Yeah, we saw you exit stage right and thought we'd come check on you," Noah added, sitting on the other side of me.

"They hate me," I sobbed, not even trying to hide that I was crying. "They're my family and they hate me."

"They don't hate you, it's not possible to hate you," Audrey reassured, rubbing my shoulder affectionately.

"It's like I'm ruining their lives being here," I cried, tears still pouring down my face. "I lost my mom, my best friend, and it's like they're punishing me or something. I don't even know what I did."

Noah wrapped his arm around my shoulder and pulled me close. I laid my head on his shoulder as Audrey rubbed my back and I tried to pull myself together. Having friends was really nice, I've never really had ones like these before.

I pulled myself back together a few minutes later and fixed my makeup. "Thanks, guys. I'm a mess, but I'm working on it."

Audrey just brushed it off and stood up, offering me and Noah her hands. She pulled us to her feet and we made our way over to Nina's memorial. All the things here were almost a fake as she was, handwritten notes stuck to every surface available. Teddy bears and flowers were all over the ground like she was a little kid or something.

"I miss you, Nina Bobina. Rest in Prada, Miranda," I read from one of the thousands of cards stuck to the fence line of Nina's memorial.

"Isn't that the girl Nina fat-shamed into some questionable Guatemalan liposuction?" Noah asked, raising his eyebrows in surprise.

"That sounds like our Nina," Audrey smiled, sarcasm dripping from every word.

Like we were all linked together, we looked over at the same time to see a woman with glasses and a tape recorder talking to Mr. Larson. She was asking about Nina's relationship with the other students and he was gushing about how "loved" she was by everyone. I heard Noah scoff and it took everything I had to not laugh out loud.

"Who's that?" I asked, not bothering to be quiet.

Like she heard me, the woman walked over to us with her tape recorder still held in her hand. "Hey, guys, I'm Piper Shaw. I'm doing a story for…"

" _Autopsy of a Crime_ ," Noah said suddenly. "Yeah, your show is completely addictive."

Now that he mentioned it, her voice did sound familiar. Sophia insisted on having the podcast plugged into the aux cord the entire way to school. It was interesting to her, but I would've chosen music over it. Maybe I just liked listening to The Smiths more...

"Thank you," Piper smiled

"Uh, I'm Noah Foster and this is Audrey and Gwen," Noah said quickly, obviously flustered by meeting her.

Piper eyed Audrey like she was trying to place her and I felt Audrey tense. "You look really familiar…"

"You probably saw my video…" Audrey added, not breaking her gaze.

She just nodded and went back to her original questions. "I'm trying to get past all the faux-BFF BS and get a clear picture of the real Nina Patterson. Did any of you know her?"

"Yeah," Audrey said, answering for all of us. "Nina was a stone-cold bitch who got what she deserved."

"That's pretty clear," Piper exclaimed, pushing her glasses up her nose in surprise. "Can I quote you on that?"

"No!" Noah and I exclaimed at the same time. But Noah kept talking, "No, she's just saying words."

Piper turned to me and eyed me curiously. "What about you? Do you have any thoughts on Nina and her murder?"

I shrugged indifferently and pulled my bag higher up onto my shoulders. "I just transferred this year, I didn't really know her. It's sad when anyone dies, it sucks that she doesn't get to live her life anymore."

That was the realest answer I could give without speaking ill of the dead. I saw Noah chomping at the bit to say something about her, but Jake's pissed voice broke through the dull chatter of mourners around us.

"Someone's ass is toast!"

"Uh, some other time I would love to tell you what I think," Noah said as Jake rushed over and grabbed him by the collar, holding him against the lockers.

"Noah!" he shouted, his face really close to Noah's.

"What's up, Jake?" he asked, trying to sound as normal as possible with Jake's knuckles pressed firmly against his larynx.

"Was it you, nerd? Was this payback for the lake?" he shouted, refusing to let go or back down.

Noah raised his brows, but I saw mischief in his eyes –whatever Jake was yelling about, the idiot totally did. "Was what payback?"

"My truck," he seethed, spit flying from his mouth dramatically. "It went viral!"

I pulled my phone out of my bag and saw that he was telling the truth. His big black overcompensation of a truck was all over my Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram feed. Someone wrote "doosh" on the side of it in red paint, but the misspelling made it a lot funnier. He looked like an illiterate dick, which he kind of was…

"Well, I mean, you know…" Audrey said, trying to remind him that he wasn't the only one with an embarrassing viral secret going around the school.

"Can it, les-beast!" Jake shouted, making me jump in surprise.

"Hey, leave him alone!" I shouted, grabbing Jake's arm and pulling it away from Noah's throat. "It's just paint, it'll wash off. Stop being a jerk! You don't even know for sure it was Noah."

Jake pulled up out his phone and shoved it in Noah's face instead. "You know anything about this?"

"No, but, you know, it is a sad statement of the decline of our public schools," Noah sassed, making me want to slap the back of his head in frustration.

"That's the wrong answer," Jake said, grabbing his shirtfront in both hands this time and lifting Noah's feet off the ground.

"Whoa!" Noah exclaimed, his voice flustered and gaspy. "I swear I didn't touch your truck!"

Jake slammed his back against the lockers once more before dropping him and walking way. "If I find out you were lying, I swear to God you are dead!"

Everyone went back to what they were doing as soon as the spectacle was over. I looked Noah over to make sure he was okay before slapping the back of his head. He winced and raised his brows, but his smile was understanding.

"Misspelling douche was an interesting choice," Audrey remarked after we started walking to our lockers from outside.

"Yeah, well, I should've used the spray stuff," Noah remarked, tossing his arm around my shoulder carelessly like usual. He wiggled his fingers in my face and said, "I got paint all over me, looked like Carrie at prom by the time I got home."

"You could've just been the bigger person and not tried to get revenge," I mused knowingly, handing him my backpack as I grabbed my books.

"There's no fun in being the bigger person, Gwendolyn," he replied, waggling his eyebrows at me playfully.

"My name's not Gwendolyn, it's Guinevere," I sighed, the two of us having this argument more times than I could count as Audrey watched passively from the sidelines.

He just shrugged and pushed my locker shut. As if on a timer, all the phones in the hallway dinged simultaneously. I looked at mine and saw it was a GIF. When I clicked on it to load, I gasped and covered my mouth in surprise. A person with a deformed mask was standing in front of a pool with Nina floating in it. It didn't take a medical degree to know that she wasn't alive anymore.

"What the hell is this?!" I asked, moving to look at both Audrey and Noah.

"It looks like Brandon James standing in front of Nina's body after he killed her," Audrey answered, looking from her phone to us and back again. "This is twisted."

So that was the Brandon James mask everyone was talking about. Not being a Lakewood native meant I had very limited knowledge of the entire situation. All I knew was what Noah told everyone in class the other day, which was just the scratching the surface.

* * *

It seemed all the dramatic moments at school happened in Mr. Branson's classroom. Granted, there was only one other one, but that's not the point. I guess it was because we usually had our phones out and got contact to the outside world.

"All right, guys, you know, phones down!" Mr. Branson announced like he'd read my mind.

"But the Brandon James GIF put us on the map, Mr. B!" Jake exclaimed, holding his palm up to Will who just ignored him. "I mean, we've got like seven of the top ten trending hashtags right now!"

"You know, maybe you should focus more on your studies and less on Lakewood's web-buzz," Mr. Branson said, also ignoring Jake's stupidity.

I saw Noah's smirk out of the corner of my eye and waited for the sarcastic remark that I knew was coming. "Who can resist a murder selfie? Which is what the killer is counting on."

"All right, Will Graham, what is this killer's design?" Mr. Branson asked, leaning back against his desk and crossing his arms to listen to Noah's rantings.

"Well, murder's a lonely game, you know? I mean, you're the killer, okay, -you sneak into Nina's house, you skulk around and scare her, and then you kill her. Boom!" Noah said, his monologue gaining everyone's attention. "But then what? You take a victory lap around the pool? You just stand there, watching blood spread out in the water thinking your creepy thoughts?"

"Creepy monologue alert," Jake said, making Brooke roll her eyes and turn her back to him –the dumbass was two for two friends ignoring him now.

"So maybe it's no good if he's the only one who's watching," Riley said, looking over at Noah with big, loved up eyes that made my stomach flip uncomfortably.

"Exactly, yeah! It's the age of Instagram and YouTube and Tumblr," Noah said, smiling at Riley and flashing her the same eyes she had. "I mean, we need to share the things we do or it's like it never happened."

Someone's phone went off again and I mentally face-palmed at the idiot who forgot to put it on silence. I glanced back at Riley and saw she was the one. Her jaw dropped and she gasped, making Mr. Branson look at her in annoyance.

"Riley, phones off," he warned, shoving his hands in his pockets and standing up straight.

"Sorry, Mr. B," she said looking up at him with her jaw still hanging open. "My friend from St. Mary's texted, a girl that goes there died."

"No way! Who was it?" Brooke asked, instantly paying looking up from her nails and participating in class.

"How'd it happen?" Jake added.

"It doesn't say," Riley replied, looking back down at her phone.

"I have, uh, to go to the bathroom," Audrey said, pushing up from her desk and running out of the room quickly.

That girl in the video with her went to St. Mary's… there was no way it was the same girl. That school had to have at least two hundred girls that went there, the odds of it being Rachel were miniscule, right? The odds of Nina being murdered in her backyard was also miniscule… Shit, Lakewood was a total shit show.

I glanced over at Noah and saw that he came to the same conclusion I did. The two of us were about to get up to check on her when Emma beat us to it. Well, that was an interesting turn of events. I guess the two of them were getting close again. I remembered her talking briefly about them being best friends when they were younger.

* * *

When class let out, Noah and I went on the hunt for Audrey. She wasn't very hard to find, sitting in front of the office with her bag on her lap. We sat on either side of her with him in a chair and me on the arm of hers. Things were silent for a minute before Noah finally spoke.

"Hey, you, you going home?" he asked awkwardly, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

"Uh, my dad's coming to pick me up," she answered, her voice breaking pitifully. "I am officially distraught."

"I'm so sorry, Audrey," I gushed, squeezing her shoulder and trying to be supportive. "God, this sucks royally."

"Yeah, well, our relationship wasn't even legal under the bylaws of Lakewood Municipal Code, so…" she trailed off, her eyes filling with tears.

"Right… Gay rights joke," Noah tried to quip, but it wasn't very genuine.

She leaned her head against his shoulder and I leaned mine against hers. The three of us sat together until her dad came to get her and we had to go to class. Even though I wasn't the one who lost someone, Noah wrapped his arms around me and hugged me tight before we parted ways.

* * *

 **I'm trying to slowly ease the romance in while staying true to the timeline. Of course things are going to vary the further I get into the story line, but I'm trying!**


	4. Chapter 4

**As usual, thank you so much for the reviews! Here's a new chapter for all of you reviewing my this story, it means so much!**

* * *

"If you were a girl, would you be impressed if I brought you here to watch classic scary movies?" Noah asked as we sat doing homework together at the video game store.

I scoffed and threw my pencil at him, making him shriek and barely dodged it. "So my ovaries and uterus don't make me a female anymore?"

He rolled his eyes and tossed me back my pencil. "You know what I mean, a girl that I could be interested in."

I winced and felt my eyes burn, my stomach turning sour. "Oh, you mean like Riley? A pretty, popular girl who only noticed you because of your weird obsession with murders that happened to kind of coincide with the murder of her 'best friend' that she secretly hated?"

I don't know where that anger came from –that's a lie and we both know it. My feelings were hurt because he basically just said I'd never be the girl he liked. I had all these feelings for him and he was obsessed with Riley, so obsessed he couldn't even see how big of a crush I had on him.

"What just happened? Why are you yelling at me?" he asked, pushing his books onto the table and turning to face me. "What the hell, Gwen?"

I pushed my stuff into the floor and jumped to my feet. "You just blatantly told me I was never going to be worthy of your affections and you're upset because I'm angry?"

The anger on his face dissolved and confusion took its place. "Huh? You're angry because I have a crush on Riley and not you? That's a little selfish…"

A traitorous tear left my eye and I wiped it away before he could see it. At least I tried, but his face softened and I knew he'd seen it. He was on his feet and in front of me in seconds, looking at me in fear as he pumped his fists. I pushed past him and gathered all my things, shoving them into my bag. Embarrassment flooding me along with rejection so fast it almost made me dizzy.

"Gwen, where are you going? Your house is like seven miles from here," he said as I pushed open the door and tried to get away.

"Trust me, it's going to take walking seven miles to make this embarrassment go away," I said, walking down the sidewalk quickly to try and get away from him.

"Stop, let me drive you home!" he shouted, grabbing my wrist and pulling me to a stop. "Hey, talk to me. I'm just the movie nerd who knows more about serial killers than anyone should. Why are you upset that I like Riley?"

This was stupid, I couldn't make him like me when he liked someone else. It wasn't fair to me or him or Riley, I should be a good friend and let him be with the cool girl that liked him. I should go put on a more black and go be with Audrey at Rachel's wake.

"I just don't want you to get hurt," I said, my shoulders slouching in as I gave up my stubbornness. "Too much is happening right now, I don't want you or Audrey to hurt. She's hurting right now and I can't fix it, I don't want Riley to break your heart because I can't fix that either."

That wasn't a total lie, I didn't want her to break his heart and I didn't want either of them to hurt. They were my best friends, when they hurt I hurt. Audrey was already devastated, I didn't want Noah to be like that too.

"Aw," he cooed, pulling me close and hugging me on the sidewalk in front of the video game store. "You're so sweet, Gwen."

My stomach was still sour, but I hugged him back anyway. We went back inside and continued to study, but only after Audrey swore she didn't want either of us to come with her. She was just going to make an appearance and then leave, her parents didn't exactly know their perfect catholic daughter was a moonlighting as a lesbian.

"You never answered my question, you know?" he said an hour or so later. "Would bringing her here be romantic or stupid?"

As much as I hated it, I had to help him plan a romantic night. "It could be but not just the normal video store. You need to get candles, probably vanilla or something light like that, and place them on that table. Put soft pillows on the couch and make some popcorn with the lights down low. Put in a really good movie and offer her the fluffy, warm blanket you're going to bring after you turn the heat down a little so she'll want it.

"Then you're going to get under it too and hold her close. She'll look up at you and you'll look down at her and it'll be so romantic."

That was actually the perfect night to me, but I feel like it could be universal. Warmth, candle light, and cuddling was the best thing for a date. I could almost imagine being all cuddled up and warm watching movies with Noah and maybe kissing… but that's a story for another day.

"Having girl best friends comes in handy sometimes," he said, winking at me and making my heart do funny things before I convinced it to calm down.

* * *

Breaking off into pairs sucked when you were a group of three friends, it sucked even more when the teacher made the pairs. Mr. Branson seemed to be on team Niley, Roah –whatever, he partnered Noah with Riley and me with Will. I've never talked to the kid before, but I knew he cheated on Emma with Nina and it caused a lot of drama because no one told Emma until he did accidently. Drama spread around Lakewood like wildfire…

"Hi, I'm Gwen," I said once we'd broke off into groups to talk about our project.

"Will," he said, never looking away from Emma and Kieran.

"Right, I'm not doing this entire project by myself while you pine over your ex-girlfriend," I said, clasping my hands together and placing them on the desk in front of me. "Kieran's hot and you messed up, of course that's who she's going to rebound with. Anyone with a brain that's watched a teen movie knows that."

He actually looked away from them to me. "You think he's hot, too?"

I rolled my eyes before opening my notebook. "He's mysterious and new, of course everyone's going to think he's hot. You're cute and wholesome, except the cheating with one of her best friends part, that usually wins out over mysterious and broody… But cheating is inexcusable to most people."

"I didn't cheat! We were on a break," he said, running a hand through his hair in frustration. "We were on a break and I'm weak, so weak."

"Okay, Ross Geller, that's still pretty rough," I said, tapping my pen as I spoke. "I would advise you not to interfere with that and let it run its course. She's trying to get over you, but he'll do something that reminds her of you and she'll bolt. Then she'll come back to you and you start kissing her ass until she forgives you. Unfortunately, you're a guy and that means you're going to ignore _everything_ I said and jump in with both feet."

His face was surprised to put it lightly. I guess he wasn't expecting me to be so opinionated whenever I was so quiet in class. For some reason people don't realize you don't have to scream about opinions to have them… I also kind of wanted Kieran to be single, even if I had less than zero chance with him and would never go after him.

Was that selfish? Maybe Noah was right, I am a selfish person.

* * *

I was lying on my bed with my computer in front of me when Skype started ringing. I'd already talked to Audrey about Rachel for two hours earlier so it wasn't her. The girl was a mess, even if she was trying her best to keep it under wraps. She even thought someone was framing Rachel's suicide, that someone actually killed her. I guess it was too hard for her to think she didn't notice Rachel was depressed –of course, I didn't tell her that or anything. I just listened and nodded like the good friend that I am.

"Your plan worked perfectly until it didn't," Noah said as soon as I answered the call.

"Huh?" I asked in confusion. "I made several plans today, I don't know which one you're talking about."

He rolled his eyes but answered the question anyway. "The one for the romantic night with Riley. She thought it was awesome until she got a text from Tyler and ran off."

"Why would she run to Tyler? Isn't he the one they think killed Nina?" I asked, grateful for the excuse to not do my homework.

He shrugged and flopped backwards on the couch he was sitting on. "One second we were making out and talking about condoms and the next she was running out of the store."

 _Condoms_?! Things were that serious between the two of them? I felt my stomach drop and I tried my best to keep it from showing on my face. I needed to be the best friend instead of the crazy girl with a crush on him. Even if he always had sex with a girl he just started talking to a couple days ago.

"Wow, that's rough," I finally said, figuring it was the best answer I could give.

"So, what's your opinion on spending the night watching classic movies in low light with vanilla candles and popcorn while we're wrapped up in fluffy blankets?" he asked, grinning genuinely for the first time in the conversation.

It shouldn't be healthy for my stomach to be in my throat one second and then be filled with butterflies the next. My life was a literal rollercoaster whenever he was involved. I planned the perfect date for him to go on with another girl and he was inviting me after she left him.

"So you want me to be your backup date?" I asked as I put my stuff up and got ready to leave. "That's so sweet, I feel so good about myself."

He rolled his eyes and smiled at my dramatics. "I worked hard and want someone to experience it with me who doesn't leave for a possible murderer. I'll be at your place in ten, be waiting anxiously."

I rolled my eyes before shutting my computer, grabbing a hoodie and my phone charger, and heading downstairs. I thought about putting in my contacts but immediately shot the idea down. I wasn't even wearing makeup, tonight was just a friend night… He did almost have sex with Riley earlier –I didn't want to be Noah's Kieran. If that made any sense…

"I'm going to Noah's, I'll be back later," I told my dad as I went out the door.

I was standing in my driveway when I heard one of the bushes behind me rustle. I figured it was just the wind so I didn't think anything of it until I felt eyes on me. I looked around spastically, but there wasn't anything in the yard. I stepped back up onto the porch until I saw Noah's headlights.

I ran to his car and pulled the door shut, reaching over Noah to hit the lock so we were safely inside. My heart was pounding and my eyes were burning furiously. My stomach was flipping and my breathing was rapid.

"What's wrong? Are you okay? You look like you're about to pass out," he said, turning to face me and holding my shoulders. "You're kinda freaking me out."

I pulled my knees up into the seat with me and pressed my forehead against them. "It's nothing, I just scared myself. I heard the bushes rustle and immediately jumped to murderers. Just drive back to the store and feed me."

He just nodded reluctantly and followed my instructions. I thought about what happened the whole way there and realized how stupid I was. It was obviously just the wind rustling the bushes and my dad probably looked out the window to see if I was still there. There wasn't a mass murderer running around, just Tyler who got pissed at Nina. I was being ridiculous.

* * *

"I'm telling you it's scarier because it could actually happen!" I argued as the credits of _Halloween_ rolled on the screens in front of us. "Ghosts are bullshit, demon possessions are too religious, and ghoulish monsters are just ridiculous. But serial killers breaking into houses to seek vengeance? That could happen any day of the week!"

I could practically hear Noah's eyes rolling at my explanation. "You're ridiculous! Stuff that can really happen is weak, you need stuff that's just a hair away from being totally crazy. Stuff that happens every day isn't scary, little girls swearing like sailors and projectile vomiting pea soup at priests is terrifying because it's out of the norm!"

"Her vomit looked just like soup! The effects are so over the top they're not believable!" I argued, hitting him with the pillow on my lap. "You're so dumb!"

He scoffed before hitting me with his pillow. "Your automatic response is to call me names and hit me with a pillow? Are you in middle school?"

I stuck my tongue out before moving to stand on my knees and hit him again. He laughed and immediately started hitting me back. An all-out war started after that, me knocking him off the couch and following him down with my pillow flying.

I'm not sure how, but he ended up knocking my pillow out of my hands and taking my wrists in his hands. I was crouched over his stomach with my head down near his, struggling to steady my breathing while laughter shook my body.

"We just had a pillow fight. If we were in a horror movie, we basically just put ourselves on the chopping block," he said, making me pull up and look at his face.

I was so close to his face I could feel his breath hitting my chin. I knew I should've gotten up, but I couldn't break his gaze. He let go of one of my hands to reach up and brush my hair behind my ear and I rested my free one on his chest. His heart was beating really fast underneath my palm and I knew mine was mirroring it.

"I didn't know you wore glasses," he finally said, making me laugh and breaking out intense eye contact.

"Yeah, I'm blind as a bat," I replied, not moving off his stomach. "I was in the middle of doing homework when you invited me to your date."

"Shoot, I forgot to ask Riley something about our project," he said, sitting up and making me fall onto his lap suddenly. Our eyes locked again and something intense passed between us. His voice was rough when he forced out, "Uhm, I have to get my phone…"

I nodded and jerkily stood up, trying to hide my flaming cheeks. I probably looked like a total perv, sitting on his lap and staring at him. I just ruined our friendship, there was no way it would stay the same.

"Noah!" Riley shouted, making me jump in surprise.

"Riley? Riley, oh my god!" Noah shrieked, fear clear in his voice. "Where are you? What's happening?"

"He stabbed me!" she shouted, making my entire body turn cold as fear flooded me. "Please call 911."

I had my phone out, dialing the number before she even finished talking. "Hello, 911, what's your emergency?"

"My friend has been stabbed," I said quickly. "She needs an ambulance!"

"Ma'am, where is your friend?" she asked calmly. "Is the person still there? Are you safe?"

"Who stabbed you? Where are you?" Noah asked after I repeated the question the woman on the other line asked me.

"On the roof, Tyler," she breathed, really out of breath and lying flat on her back. "He's gone now."

"We're not in the same place, she says she's on a roof and the person who stabbed her isn't there," I replied, trying to keep my voice steady so she could understand me.

"We have to have a location to send an ambulance to," the woman said, trying to keep me calm as my adrenaline started pumping overtime.

"Hey, Riley, where are you?" Noah repeated, tears making his voice sound thick and muffled. "Just look around. Just tell me what you can see!"

"I can see our stars," she said, but she was barely audible now.

"No! Riley, hey, no! Hey, you have to stay with me, okay?" Noah shouted as Riley's breathing slowed. "Please. Please! Riley! Riley?"

"We don't know where she is, but she's not talking anymore. She's on a roof where it's dark enough for her to see stars in Lakewood," I told the lady from 911. "I don't know anything more!"

"We'll send a car to do a sweep, ma'am. That's all we can do," she said before the line went dead.

* * *

 **This chapter is sort of the beginning of the NoahxGwen romance. I'm still trying not to push it too much too fast, but it needs to sort of start coming into play.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Thanks for reading and reviewing!**

* * *

Two days have passed since they found Riley's body on the roof of the police department. Two days have passed since I've seen Noah. Two days have passed since he's made contact with me or Audrey.

After class she and I made a plan to go visit him, even if that wasn't what he wanted. It wasn't okay for him to be MIA for so long. Audrey lost someone she cared about too and didn't completely fall off the map. That mean he couldn't either. Losing someone sucked, going through it all alone sucked even harder.

Audrey called his mom, but she said he told her he'd been staying at her house. After I swallowed down my hysteria, I realized where he was. We borrowed her dad's car and made our way to the video game store where we found Noah lying on the couch.

"Hey, we found you," I said, sitting on one side of him while Audrey sat on the other.

"You know, it usually helps when you tell someone you're staying at their house as a cover story," Audrey said, making Noah look at her with raised brows. "Your mom wants to talk after Gwen and I leave… sorry."

Audrey handed him the coffee we brought and he thanked her but didn't drink it. I remember when the thought of consuming anything made me want to vomit because my stomach was in such tight knots. Losing someone you cared about was really hard, almost impossible to get over by yourself. Yet again, this kid couldn't go through this on his own.

"Have you been sleeping here?" I asked, turning my body to face him and tucking one of my legs under my body.

"If by sleep, you mean stare numbly into space as time passes slowly –then yeah, I slept," he replied, staring at the wall across from us.

Audrey and I looked at each other with raised brows. He was taking this really badly considering they just became friends a couple days ago. Granted, he almost gave her his virginity, but that's not the point right now.

Audrey glanced down at his hands and saw him clutching his phone. "What are you reading?"

"Highlights from my brief text relationship with Riley," he replied, holding up his phone and scrolling through the conversation. "Meet me by the football field."

"Ah, that's a really big one," Audrey agreed, scooting into his side and squeezing his knee affectionately.

I moved closer to him as well and wrapped my arm around his shoulders, scratching at his scalp with my nails. My mom always used to do that for me when I was really sad or anxious as a kid. I felt Noah lean into my touch and his shoulders lost some of their tension under my arm.

"Yes, my mom's on a kale kick."

"Disgusting."

"Who would win in a cage match, Lady Gaga or Madonna?"

"Gaga, those monsters would fuck Madonna up."

"Gaga would totally win, right?"

"Yeah, definitely."

Noah groaned again and looked back at his phone screen in sorrow. "The Victorians had it right. I wish I had, like, a lock of her hair or something real, you know? Not just pixels on a screen."

"That's not true, you've got your memories," I said, brushing his hair out of his face before going back to scratching his scalp lightly.

"You know, maybe if I'd punched my v-card, the rules of horror would've kicked in," Noah mused a few minutes later. "Maybe I'd be the one who died."

The thought of him dying made me want to vomit, not to mention the thought of him having sex with someone else. I needed to comfort him somehow and humor seemed to be the best way.

"I don't think that's how it works," Audrey quipped, smirking at him.

"You could always have a threesome with us right now," I replied, making Audrey grin and Noah freeze. "Unfortunately that would be us taking advantage of your heightened emotional state and we can't have that. Right, Audrey?"

"Mhmm, Gwen's right," she said, slapping palms with me.

"Thanks, guys," Noah said as his cheeks dusted pink –which was progress. "Yeah, it's very kind of you."

Noah leaned his head against my shoulder as Audrey leaned against him. I took Audrey's hand in my free one and laced our fingers together. Noah wasn't crying, but I could almost feel his sadness coming off him in waves.

"I'd rather channel my anguish into something more productive," he said later, still leaning against me with Audrey still on him. "Maybe vigilante justice…"

"We could all team up, 'Bi-curious and The Virgins,'" Audrey said, moving her hands dramatically as she spoke.

I laughed so hard at that my eyes started to water and my cheeks ached. Noah was grinning and didn't look like he was going to jump off a building anymore. He still needed to shower and drink four cups of coffee, but it was even more progress.

"That is the world's saddest crime fighting duo," Noah said after I quieted my giggles to quiet chuckles.

Audrey held up her fist and Noah and I hit it with ours, pulling back and imitating an explosion. It was originally their thing, but they graciously included me.

"Come on, virgins, we're gonna be late," Audrey said, standing up and heading toward the door.

"You guys go, I don't think I'm ready to face reality just yet," Noah said, gesturing for us to leave, but I stayed put. "Gwen, I'm good. You should go."

"Nah, I didn't even know Riley or Nina," I shrugged, eyeing Audrey. "Unless you need me to go with you we're gonna game and I'm gonna kick his ass."

The memorial for Riley and Nina was tonight and the entire town was going, my family included. The last thing I wanted was to go to it and watch people mourn. I had to force myself to go to my own mother's funeral because it was so suffocating to me. Death wasn't something I ever wanted to think about or be around.

"That actually sounds wonderful," he said.

* * *

I stayed there with him and played tons of video games that I had no idea how to play. I'd kicked off my booties and lost my cardigan in the haste to beat him at something, but he was too good to be beat.

"I know you were drinking earlier, I smelled it after Audrey left," I said, not looking away from the screens in front of us. "That's not healthy, Noah."

"I don't know what you're talking about…" he said, but his gameplay lagged and I knew he was lying. "It's not like they can fire me, I'm the only one that knows how to reset the router."

I paused the game and turned to face him instead of the TV. "Talk to me, talk to Audrey, hell, talk to yourself, as long as you're talking. Don't bottle it up, it's not healthy."

"Oh so you're the only one who's allowed to bottle up their feelings? The only one that's allowed to avoid death?" he shouted, making me jump in surprise. "You never talk about your mom or face that, but I'm supposed to deal with all this automatically?"

"Why are you screaming at me? I'm just trying to be your friend, Noah," I said, moving into the corner of the couch.

"Oh, is that why you almost kissed me last night? You almost kissed me when you knew I was with Riley," he accused, still screaming at me.

My body heated up as embarrassment flooded me. I thought I was being subtle about my feelings for him, but it was apparently obvious. I pushed my feet back into my boots and pulled on my sweater, grabbing my backpack before heading toward the door.

I didn't say anything to him or even look back the entire seven miles to my house. Heeled military booties were not the appropriate footwear for walking, but I was too stubborn to go back to Noah after he made me feel like that. I knew somewhere deep down he was just lashing out because he was hurt, but that didn't make the ache in my chest lessen.

I was thankful my family was still at the wake because I really didn't want to deal with them. I'd just dropped my backpack onto my bed when my phone rang. Audrey's face was on my screen so I answered it.

"What are you doing right now?" she asked.

"Uhm, waiting for you to show up at my house for some random adventure?" I asked, pulling on Converse instead of my boots and jogging downstairs. "I'll be on my porch."

When I got in the car with them, I literally could've passed out when they told me what we were doing. Some random guy was calling Emma and threatening her and her friends. She was completely convinced he was the killer because Tyler's body was found at the bottom of a ravine last night.

She also got a yearbook in the mail and it led to her going to talk to Noah about what they should do. Audrey made the conscious decision to leave him behind because he wasn't exactly stable emotionally right now. I guess I was the next best thing.

We were going to an old abandoned hospital that Brandon James used to go to. It was the place where the mask was made –a cryptic message written in the yearbook. Basically we were walking into a creepy old hospital, possibly in a trap, and doing it willingly.

* * *

 **Thanks for being supportive!**


	6. Chapter 6

**I'm sorry about the confusion from the last chapter, I accidentally posted the first chapter instead of the fifth one. If you haven't read the actual chapter, it's posted now. If you have read it, then go ahead and read this one.**

* * *

Emma parked in front of the hospital and a shiver went down my spine. It was even scarier being there in real life than thinking it in my head. The three of us stayed close as we broke in, knocking down a couple boards to creep inside.

"This place is the epitome of creep-city," I whispered, afraid to give away that we were in there.

Audrey looked back at me from her camera, making a "highlight reel" for Noah to watch later. She already made a joke about him "being a kid at Disneyland" and "having to put him on a leash" if we'd brought him. It sounded funny, but she wasn't lying.

"Okay, so what do you guys think?" Emma asked nervously, looking around the hospital with the light from her phone.

"I don't know about you all, but second thoughts are definitely taking place in my brain," I said, still staying close to the two of them.

"Look, this guy killed Riley at the police station and Nina at her house, and I know for a fact that he was outside my house the other night," Emma argued, her voice getting stronger with each word. "If he wanted to kill me, he's had plenty of chances."

"That's sketchy logic," Audrey reasoned, then added, "But it almost makes sense…"

She reached into her backpack and pulled out something rectangular and black. I didn't realize what it was until she pressed the side and it buzzed to life. I screeched and grabbed Emma's arm –Audrey had a damn Taser on her!

"You have a stun gun?" Emma asked in surprise.

She tossed it to her and said, "If your psycho friend shows up, push the button and jam it into his junk."

"Sounds effective," Emma reasoned. Then she looked at us with raised brows, "What about the two of you?"

She pulled out a crowbar and baseball bat, offering me either. I grinned and took the bat, I had a few years of softball under my belt. I could probably take someone out with this bat if they got close enough… Plus I felt like a badass holding it.

"This place is huge!" Emma exclaimed after we'd been looking around for a couple minutes.

"Maybe we should split up…" Audrey said, looking at us with raised brows.

"Are you serious? That's literally the dumbest idea in the entire world!" I shouted, rounding on her with Emma in tow.

"Relax, I was just messing around," Audrey said, holding up her hands in surrender. "Jeez."

We were wandering deeper into the bowels of the hospital and the hair on the back of my neck was standing on end. This place didn't feel right, it also didn't feel right that we were following a clue left in a yearbook sent to Emma from someone who was terrorizing her.

"If Tyler was the one who sent you that yearbook, we're following a dead man's trail," Audrey said.

"Or a live man's trap," Emma added.

"Who's to say it's a man? A woman could torture and kill just as easily as a man could," I said, trying to be the voice of reason.

"I mean, it was a man's voice that called me…" Emma said, sounding a lot less sure of herself.

"A voice like this?" a stranger said from behind us.

Emma reached out and grabbed my arm, pulling me to her as we whirled around. Audrey had her phone up to her mouth, she must've been the one talking.

"$1.99 voice changer app, we used it for Rachel's zombie movie," she replied, holding the phone so we could see the screen. "It could literally be anybody."

We turned the corner and saw a long hallway. It was basically every hallway you see in scary movies ever, the kind that make your nerves spring into action and your heart start pounding. I tightened my grip on the baseball bat and followed the others down it, pushing down every instinct that told me otherwise.

There were pieces of plastic hanging over old doorways, swaying with a wind I didn't feel. An acrid, horrible smell started burning my nose and I saw the other two flinching. It was good to know I wasn't the only one smelling it, that would mean I'd officially gone crazy. Despite the smell, we pushed through the curtain it was coming from and stopped dead in our tracks.

"Oh, God," Audrey groaned, covering her nose with her hand. "Is that a pig?"

"Oh my god, I'm never eating bacon again," I whined, pinching my nose but the smell was too deep inside to block out.

For some reason, Audrey and Emma thought it was a good idea to go further into the room with the dead pig. The last thing I wanted was to be left alone anywhere inside so I hurried behind them. Eventually I didn't smell the pig anymore, but I knew it was there and missing its heart and head.

"My mom got a heart in a box," Emma said, eyeing the empty inside of the pig. "This is where it's from, it has to be."

The sight of the pig was starting to turn my stomach so I turned away. There were x-rays on the thing and the lights were turned on like someone had been here. This place had been set up because the murderer knew Emma would follow the clue he sent her.

I looked at the file folders sitting on the table and saw they were filled out. "Guys, these are Brandon James' x-rays. This must be where they tried to fix him!"

"The masks were custom made for Brandon's face after each one of the surgeries," Audrey read from one of the many sheets of papers.

"There's more than one?" I asked, chewing on my bottom lip nervously.

I heard a thumping noise behind us and jumped, freezing in my tracks. My hands were sweating and it was made gripping the bat hard. Audrey raised her crowbar and Emma readied herself to aim low and push the button on the stun-gun. We all looked at each other and nodded, walking together toward the noise.

We pushed open the plastic and slammed into a body, making everyone in the room scream in surprise. There was so much adrenaline, I don't remember what happened until I saw Noah lying on the ground. The little idiot must've followed us here, the others were stupid to think he wouldn't.

"Did you just try to tase my man parts?!" Noah shrieked, looking up at us with raised brows.

Audrey offered him her hand and pulled him up, but I refused to meet his eyes. Angry or not, he had no right to shout at me like he did. I was still raw from losing my mom, but that didn't mean I had to grieve the way he thought I should.

"What are you doing here, Noah?" I asked, crossing my arms over my chest in frustration.

"Does that really require an explanation?" he asked, seemingly confused by my presence but ignoring it. "You know I wanna make this guy pay as much as you do."

"Hey, don't blame them," Audrey replied, immediately stepping in front of me and Emma. "Blame me, it's my fault we didn't ask you."

"Holy Christmas. Oh, I knew it," Noah exclaimed, pushing pas us and back into the creepy surgery room. "It's a genuine killer's lair!"

"That's a thing?" Emma asked curiously.

"Oh god, don't get him started on his serial killer fetish!" I groaned, but I knew he was already too far gone to stop now.

"A lair is an extension of the killer's psychosis," he said, walking around and investigating as he lectured us on things we'd never thought about. "The root cellar in _Psycho_ , Kevin Spacey's apartment in _Seven_ , Hannibal Lector's kitchen! I mean, every fictional killer has one."

"So he's been living here?" Emma asked, lifting a book and coughing when dust fluttered around her face.

"I highly doubt it, this all looks staged," Noah answered. "I mean, you see lairs on TV, not in real life."

If I wasn't upset with him, I would think he was cute. He literally looked like a little kid on Christmas morning, no matter how twisted that was. His eyes were bright and he actually looked happy instead of devastated like he was earlier.

"Take _Pretty Little Liars_ for example, they're always chock-full of bloody clues and creepy unrealistic icons," he rattled on as the rest of us looked for our own bloody clues. "I mean, seriously, how would A get her hands on four Victorian dolls that look just like the main characters? Where do you shop for that?"

"Evil American Girl Doll store?" Audrey supplied with a shrug of her shoulders.

Emma left the room with us close behind her. "I can't believe the three of you came here without me!"

Audrey pulled back the plastic curtain and gestured for us to go ahead. "Yeah, you're right. After you guys."

We walked into a room full of metal shelves, stuffed to the brim with random boxes. There was all kinds of stuff strewn around, stuff I didn't expect to be in an old hospital. I guess that was what Noah mean about the place being staged.

"This is Rachel's," Audrey whispered.

"This is Nina's necklace."

"This is Riley's keychain," Noah added. "The bastard took souvenirs."

"Uh, guys, I know that's important, but I think I found the missing yearbook pictures," I said, staring at the ceiling.

There were pictures hanging on fishing hooks that looked like they had blood spatter on them. Emma's was hanging in the middle and it had a pocket knife shoved through the center. It was very obvious Emma's death was the endgame for the killer.

"I think we should go, this place's charm is wearing off," Audrey said, rubbing her shoulders like she was cold. "I'm kind of freaking out."

"Guys, this is Nina's laptop!" Emma cried from behind us. "The police have been looking for it everywhere."

The three of us rushed over to her and saw that she already had it open. There were folders along the desktop that had all her friends' names on them. That was sketchy; something told me they weren't filled with pictures of the people…

"Whoa," Audrey whispered. "Folders for all her friends?"

"Maybe they have pictures in them?" I asked, but my voice was more disbelieving than hopeful.

"Was she friends with the Mayor? Principal Showalter? The sheriff?" Noah questioned, reading all the labels on the folders.

"Nina, what the hell were you doing?" Emma whispered, more to herself than the rest of us.

She clicked on one of the folders, but a box popped up asking for a password. "They're encrypted. I could get them open, but I'd need some time."

Audrey clicked something on her camera and showed us the SD card. Of course, that was such a smart idea! She could copy all the folders over to the card and give Noah time to investigate them. I made friends with evil freakin' geniuses!

"Wait, hold on," Emma said, grabbing Audrey's wrist when she made to put the card in the computer. "This is evidence, maybe we should let the police handle this."

"Yes, because they handled the Riley situation so well," Noah quipped sarcastically.

"Em, there's a folder with your name on it. Aren't you the least bit curious?" Audrey asked, trying to convince her this was the right idea.

"I just feel like this is all a test and when I fail, people die," she cried, rubbing her temples in frustration. "I don't know what to do!"

She and Audrey were debating what the right thing to do was when I heard a faint metal clacking sound. I grabbed Noah's hand in my free one as my heart started to pound in my chest. He was about to ask what was wrong when the metallic clanking got louder.

"Guys, someone's coming," Noah whispered, trying to be quiet and not attract any more attention.

Audrey put the card in the computer and started copying the files over to it. I've saved stuff before and it was always over in a couple seconds, but apparently the SD card hadn't got the memo. It was taking forever and the footsteps were getting closer. I'm sure I was cutting off the circulation to Noah's hand by now, but he wasn't making me let go yet.

"Guys, perimeter alert!" Noah hissed quietly. "We've got to be gone already."

Another tense couple of seconds passed by with a lot of hushed whispers. A door opened somewhere way too close to be comfortable and the SD card finally finished. Noah pulled me out of the room with the girls hot on our heels. Suddenly Audrey said she saw Brandon James' mask sitting on a shelf and Emma decided we should take it because it might have DNA on it.

"Oh my god!"

There was a human head on the shelf under the mask and it was now rolling across the floor. According to Emma, it belonged to Tyler –making us all realize he wasn't the killer. His head was basically mummified by now, not giving him enough time to send the yearbook and kill Riley and Rachel.

"There's no way that kid killed anybody. He looks like he just took a nap in a sarcophagus," I said, still gripping Noah's hand like a lifeline.

We all ran through the hospital, the killer's footsteps echoing behind us. No matter how careful we were when we came in, going back out was almost impossible. It was too chaotic to remember the way we came in and retrace our steps. Luckily, Emma regained herself and shouted about a back exit, all of us doing as she said.

We emerged out of the hospital to find it surrounded by police. The sheriff saw us and immediately barked for us to follow him. He started lecturing us on how we'd made the hospital "potentially inadmissible" along with all the evidence inside of it.

Apparently, an "anonymous" tip came in about us all being there. I'm sure it was the same person who sent the yearbook and chased us around. Whoever did all this was playing with us, they were making it personal now.

Through the sheriff's lecture, we learned they already swept the place and found nothing. He became instantly interested when Emma started telling him about the yearbook with the pictures missing. Emma also guilt tripped him about not being the most faithful at helping and made the sheriff back down a bit. He confiscated Audrey's camera, sans SD card, and let us all go.

"Uh, want to catch a ride home with us?" Noah asked, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck. "And also want to forgive me for acting like a complete ass?"

"Hey, grief affects us all in different ways, right?" I asked, smiling at him as we headed to his car. "But if you ever yell at me and make me cry again, we're done. Comprende?"

He held up his hands in surrender before opening his arms to me. I wrapped mine around his waist and pressed my face against the crook of his neck. Even when we were inside, he was trying his best to make sure I got out. He wasn't worried about the other girls –just me. That _had_ to mean something…right?

"I don't know about the two of you, but I'm dying to find out what's on this SD card," Audrey said after we got inside the car. "Okay, bad choice of words, but I think they got my point across."

"Same," I agreed. "I'm coming with to the store to look this up, by the way. Don't even think about ditching me!"

Audrey turned around and winked at me. "Wouldn't dream of it, Virgin."

I made a face at her and smiled when she laughed happily. Noah joined in and soon the entire car was filled with vivacious laughter. It lasted until he pulled into the lot and we were all clutching our stomachs. Maybe it was a bit of hysteria, but it was what we all needed after the week we've had.

* * *

We sat on the couch with the SD card in Noah's laptop for almost an hour. The damn password wasn't as easy to guess as we all thought it'd be. I was already laying backward on the couch with my arm over my face in frustration.

"Try, 'thunderbitch'," Audrey suggested a couple minutes later.

Noah typed it in, but the box popped back up and made us all groan in disappointment.

"I can get around this," he finally said, making both of us hit him with pillows. "What? I was just trying to us an amuse-bouche!"

Noah was in his element a couple seconds later. He typed things in and clicked things I never thought possible, making it look like a movie. Audrey made a remark about it "almost looking cool" and I nodded my head in agreement. He wasn't joking when he said he had an elevated IQ the other day. He could do this for the government and make serious bank one day.

"We're cooking, we're cooking with gas!" he exclaimed, immediately losing all his cool points. "We're in!"

"You are Jedi," Audrey complimented. "What is it?"

Noah clicked on the icon and a video popped up. It took a couple seconds to buffer, but when it did, I immediately felt dirty. Emma and Will appeared on the screen, sitting on her bed kissing. It was very obviously not meant for anyone's eyes other than theirs –especially not Nina's. Why the hell did she have it?

"Turn it off!" I shrieked, hitting Noah's shoulder repeatedly.

"No, Noah, turn it off!" Audrey agreed, hitting his other shoulder like I was.

"Uh, I'm trying! I'm trying!" he shouted, but I ignored it this time –it was needed.

The video finally went away just as Emma's shirt was coming off. Then another box appeared and said uploading on it. The video was uploading! A sex tape of Emma, possibly her first time, was being uploaded somewhere.

"Uploading? Uploading where?" Audrey asked the dead air around us.

"It's a hidden executable," Noah replied hectically. "I can't stop it! The file's just been shared with the listserv."

"Listserv? What listserv?"

My phone vibrated along with both of theirs and answered the question. Everyone in Lakewood just got an unedited, NSFW video of Emma and Will having sex and we'd accidentally leaked it.

* * *

 **Y'all are perfect! Thanks for reading!**


	7. Chapter 7

**I have been on the longest hiatus EVER! I'm so sorry, but college is taking up all my free time. I'm writing this chapter and possibly one for my other story in hopes that you all are still reading.**

 **There's something in this chapter that makes the wait _kinda_ worth it, but I'm not gonna say what just yet... **

* * *

The three of us sat there for ten minutes before Audrey finally spoke. "We just leaked a video of Emma losing her virginity to Will…"

"We didn't just leak it, we leaked it to the entire high school," I said, still staring at Noah's desktop. "Oh my god, the entire high school has a video of Emma losing her virginity and it's our fault!"

"This is so bad! So, so, so bad!" Noah said, trying to backspace even if it wasn't doing anything. "I swear I didn't mean to do that, it uploaded on its own."

"Yeah, we all saw it. Emma's gonna be devastated," I said, looking at the two of them finally. "We just singlehandedly ruined her life, oh my god. There's no going back from this."

After we realized there was nothing we could do, we loaded into Noah's car. He continued to rant about how impossible it was, but Audrey and I ignored him. I wasn't really friends with Emma, but I would hate to lost my virginity and have a video of it streamed to every kid with a cellphone and internet access.

After he dropped off Audrey, Noah just drove around with me in the passenger seat. We didn't talk, we just listened to the music playing quietly in the background. We were both thinking of everything happening in Lakewood right now, too much for anyone to handle.

"I know you probably don't want to, but you can always talk to me about Riley," I sighed, chewing on my lip. "I totally understand if you don't want to, it's pretty intense stuff. I'm also probably not the best person to talk to about grieving, but… I'll still listen."

"No, it's okay. You're my best friend, I can talk to you," he said, brushing his hair out of his face absentmindedly. "I really liked her, but the more I think about it the more I realize it was more of an infatuation than genuine feelings. I know that's bad to say after what happened, but it's true."

"I get it, she payed attention to you and you mistook that for affection. I do the same thing sometimes," I told him honestly.

"I guess that was it, I just kind of feel bad," he said, glancing over at me. "I mean, we almost had sex and I didn't have genuine feelings for her. I'm basically in league with Jake."

"You are not, dork," I argued, turning to look at him seriously. "You're the sweetest boy I've ever met, you would do anything for your friends and that is so rare. I'm also almost positive you wouldn't have done anything with Riley when it came down to it. You're too nice, you probably would've thought you were taking advantage of her."

"I'm so glad you're in my life, Gwen," he said, looking at me with flushed cheeks.

I felt my eyebrows knit together in confusion; that was really weird, even for Noah.

* * *

Jackson drove me to school the next morning and all he could talk about was Emma's leaked video. I put in my earbuds after I heard him say "tits" four times because the only other option was to throw myself out of the moving car. I picked the earbuds because dad would probably be mad if I got a medical bill of that size.

I ran into school as soon as the car stopped and saw Noah waiting for me by my locker, but Audrey wasn't in sight. I looked at Noah with my eyebrows raised and he pointed to the end of the hall. Audrey was talking with Emma, probably telling her we released the video by accident and apologizing. I bet she was even making yet another joke about how she was a viral star a few days ago.

"Wow, everyone's talking about the video. We're the worst," I sighed as I opened my locker to get my books. "I still can't believe Nina was smart enough to encrypt that file with whatever made it leak."

"Did you just use the word encrypt in a sentence?" Noah asked with raised brows.

"Maybe... What about it?" I asked, pursing my lips flirtatiously at him.

Audrey walked up to us and immediately felt the tension between us. "What did I just walk into?"

"Nothing, how's Emma?" Noah asked, shaking his head briefly before looking down at Audrey. "Is she going to ignore us for the rest of our lives?"

"No, she's more upset that the video was taken. She's looking for Will to see if he had any idea it existed," Audrey explained, but her eyebrows were still raised. "Why is there so much tension between the two of you right now?"

"He's a nerd and I know big, fancy, techy words," I replied, flipping my hair over my shoulder and strutting down the hallway. I stopped a couple feet away and looked behind me, "Are you coming to class, virgin?"

Audrey nodded her head in approval, I guess my flirting was getting better. Noah, on the other hand, almost fell over himself in his hurry to catch up with me. Maybe I wasn't the only one that had developed a crush in this friendship. And I wasn't talking about Bi-Curious and the Virgin…

* * *

Mr. Branson's room was tense to say the least when Noah and I walked in. Brooke was yelling at some poor girl that tried to sit in Riley's seat. I kind of agreed when she said that seat belong to her forever. It was wrong for anyone else to sit there, the girl hadn't even been dead a semester yet.

"Hey, Emma, again, I am just so exponentially sorry about that video," Noah said, opening his mouth and inserting his foot without realizing it. "I had no idea that it was gonna just mutate and spread like this crazy zombie sex virus."

"Wow, I apologize for how that came out," I said, placing my hand on Noah's arm and smiling at Emma. "We are super sorry, though. It's shitty that it happened to you, no one deserves that."

"It's cool, guys," she said, then realized she was lying. "I mean, it's not okay, but… you guys couldn't have known what was going to happen."

Mr. Branson walked into the classroom and cleared his throat, drawing the class' attention to him. "Okay, everybody, I know we're still reeling from Riley's death, but we do have learning to do."

The class all found their seats and turned to face the front of the room. I tried to ignore how many empty seats were in the classroom. Okay, there were only three, but the people that sat in them were now in a graveyard and that was too cryptic to imagine.

"Noah, I know you and Riley were scene partners," Mr. Branson continued.

"Uh, yeah, I-I think I'm just gonna sit this one out," Noah said sadly, rubbing the back of his neck when everyone looked at him. "If that's okay…"

"I understand, that's fine, but the rest of us will resume our scene work next week," Mr. Branson replied. "Let's get back to Hawthorne, _The Scarlet Letter_. It's a classic tale of hypocrisy, misogyny, and female oppression."

That was basically still the world today and it left a nasty taste in my mouth. 165 years later and those were still three words to describe the world.

"Mr. Branson, seriously? With all the cyber-bullying and GIFs and mayhem going down…" Jake interjected. "Who cares?"

My phone vibrated in the pocket of my backpack, but I didn't reach to get it. I wanted to see how Mr. Branson handed Jake's ass to him this time. It was always pretty entertaining to watch.

"Actually, Jake, it's very relevant," he replied, smiling jovially as he leaned back against his desk with his arms crossed. "See, the birth of Hester Prynne's illegitimate child led to her being essentially outed and cyber-bullied, Puritan style. It just takes nine months instead of nine seconds."

"Exactly," Jake smirked, checking his phone screen and glancing back at Emma and Will. "Or three minutes, right?"

Will jumped up from his desk in a pure testosterone fueled rage and grabbed Jake's collar. "I swear to God, if you don't shut the hell up, I'm going to make you."

"Will, stop! It's enough," Emma shrieked as the class watched the scene unfolding.

I glanced over at Noah to see if he was enjoying this as much as I was and saw him look away quickly. What the heck was happening in that boy's head recently? It wasn't like our usual friendship and I wasn't too sure if I liked it or not.

"Emma, are you okay?" Mr. Branson asked after he broke up the fight and sent the boys back to their seats.

"No, uhm, I'm not okay," she replied shakily. "I know that our thoughts are all with the friends that we've lost. I just wanted to remind everyone that there's a candlelight vigil downtown tonight at seven o'clock. I hope that all of you will make it."

Class dismissed pretty soon after that and everyone made a beeline for the door. I stayed back and linked arms with Noah. Audrey was already gone and I figured she was dealing with her own drama so I didn't pry.

"I feel like we're in a shitty TV show with crazy unrealistic plot twists to keep people watching," I said, walking into the cafeteria.

"That is very true, my friend," he amended, taking his tray and following me over to our usual table. "So, do you want to be my date to the vigil tonight? I can't skip out on another one."

"Did you seriously just ask me to be your date to your ex-girlfriend's candlelight vigil?" I asked, eyeing him over my yogurt cup.

His face largely resembled a tomato when he covered it with his hands in embarrassment. "That's totally what I just did. Oh my God, just when I think my lame-dom has hit rock-bottom, I find a pick axe and dig deeper."

"This vigil is going to be so sucky," Audrey said, sitting down at the table and making both of us jump. "Okay, what's up? I've scared both of you twice today and it's only lunch time."

Noah and I looked at each other and immediately looked away. "There's nothing wrong, we're being normal. Maybe you're the one that's being weird, Audrey."

I couldn't shake the feeling that I'd done something to ruin mine and Noah's friendship. Sitting on his lap and looking at him seductively ruined everything. I took advantage of him in his heightened emotional state and now he didn't know how to act around me. Oh my God, I was freakin' Jake Fitzgerald!

"Dude, what's happening right now in Gwen-Land?" Audrey asked, snapping her fingers in front of my face and making me jump. "The bell rang and you didn't move…"

"I'm fine, I was just thinking about the lit project. Will and I have zero percent done," I made up on the spot. "My bad, I'm just a little scattered right now."

I stood up and headed back into the school, tossing out my trash as I went. Maybe geography would help me focus my mind. Or maybe I would have an epiphany about the Noah situation. I don't know, I'm just grasping at straws at this point.

As soon as classes were over, I went to my locker to stash my books inside like usual. Noah was standing in front of it, wringing his hands nervously. Dammit, this couldn't be good for either of us.

"I'm driving you home," he told me, not leaving much room for me to argue with him.

"Uhm, okay?" I replied, shoving all my things including my backpack inside of it and shutting it.

The walk to the parking lot was really stiff and awkward, something the two of us never were when we were together. I severely ruined everything between us, there was no coming back from me attacking him in the floor of the comic book store.

"Gah!" he groaned, hitting his head against his hands that were resting on the steering wheel. "Why are we so awkward? What happened? I don't understand. Am I missing something?"

To heck with it, I'm just gonna dive in head first. "I figured it was because I attacked you at the store when you were in a heightened emotional state. It wasn't very fair of me."

I was staring out the windshield instead of looking at Noah. The thought of looking at him AND saying that made me want to melt into a puddle of embarrassment. A girl could only do so much before she spontaneously combusted in front of her best friend and the object of her affection. Especially if her feelings weren't returned.

"You attacked me? That's not exactly how I remembered it," he replied, also studying the road instead of looking at me. "I remember it like you coming over, making me laugh, and being a good friend."

 _Friend_. Wow, even if I didn't believe in the implication of the term "friend zone" this sucked royally.

"Good, I was worried it was making things weird between us so I made things weird between us. I'm just a weird person," I said, pulling my knees up and sitting my chin on them. "I'm sorry for making things weird."

"Is there a world record for the amount of times someone said the word 'weird' in a sentence? If there is, I think you may have just won," he said, looking at me out of the corner of his eye and smirking. "I like that you're weird, I'm weird too."

* * *

My dad and stepmom didn't question where I was going when I left the house in all black. They just said to remember curfew. That basically sums up our entire relationship at this point, it was probably too late for me to extend the olive branch now. I'd already made them think I didn't want to be a part of their family… and I still wasn't sure I did.

"Do you ever not wear green?" Noah asked, pinching my scarf and raising his brows. "I mean, it's a nice color and all, but it's the only color you ever wear."

"Olive green is a very nice complimentary color. It also looks good with my winter tone," I replied sassily, knocking his hand away with the back of mine. "You're wearing a printed t-shirt with a hoodie to a vigil. Why am I the one getting the third degree, fashion police?"

"There's the Gwen that I know and love. I missed her," he sassed back, signaling as he turned into Audrey's driveway.

The vigil had most of Lakewood's residents in attendance, but the three of us found a place to stand pretty easily. Emma and Brooke were walking around with boxes of candles, giving the three of us ours without saying a word. The entire situation was silent in a grieving kind of way that a funeral home was during a service. Funeral homes made me shiver, they also made me thinking of breaking vases and podiums…

"Hey, are you okay? You've got that look of pre-meltdown," Noah whispered, leaning in closer to me.

"Yeah, he's right," Audrey agreed, wrapping her arm around my waist.

I shook my head and righted my hat for something to do with my shaking hands. "I'm okay, tonight isn't about me and my baggage. It's about remembering kids that died way too young."

"Riley was six when her family moved to Lakewood. She was super tiny and completely silent," Emma's voice rang through the group and made everyone turn to look at her. "For the first couple days in our class, I was convinced that she didn't speak English, so this one day I tried speaking to her very loudly, thinking in my six year old brain that maybe that would help. And then this one day, she just… turned to me and she said…"

Emma's eyes were wild as she scanned the crowd of mourners. Something told me this wasn't a grief thing. She looked like she was seeing something the rest of us weren't and I craned my neck to see if I could see it too. I chewed my bottom lip when I realized there was nothing there, she was seeing something completely on her own.

Noah slipped away from the two of us and took Emma's place at the podium. "Uh, I think Emma's point was Riley got over her shyness. I mean, I know that I would never had had the nerve to go up to someone as beautiful as her. But I'm so damn glad that she came up."

After that I stopped listening to him. I know it's awful and selfish and I'm probably going to hell because of it, but I couldn't listen to him talk about how beautiful another girl was. I leaned against Audrey, acting like I was listening to him anyway.

"So I figure you two talked?" she asked, picking up on my discomfort almost instantly. "Judging by his eulogy, I'm assuming you didn't tell him you're in love with him."

"I don't think that's ever going to happen," I replied, skipping the denial because I knew it was pointless. "He sees me as a friend and there's nothing I can do to change that."

"That's not necessarily true, G," she said, trying to be subtle and not give anything away. "If you're really in love with him, don't give up. People aren't around forever, nothing is."

Damn, there goes Audrey dropping truth bombs that put everything into perspective. No day was guaranteed, especially here in the teen murder capital of the world. Okay, maybe that was a bit dramatic, but I'm sure it got my point across.

* * *

"Superman wears a turtle neck now, there are no rules when it comes to movie-comic book adaptions," I said, walking with Audrey from class.

"Ugh, don't even get me started!" she replied, equally as disgusted as I was. "I mean, if they ever put the Hulk in bike shorts, I'm officially done."

"But they're so stretchy!" I giggled, making Audrey burst into peals of laughter along with me.

Noah appeared out of nowhere and grabbed both of our arms. He drug us into an empty hallway before he let us go. I'm sure my face was full of confusion and annoyance because he quickly started explaining himself.

"Audrey, take out your phone," he instructed. "Now download the language arts homework from the school server."

"Why?" she asked, raising her eyebrows in suspicion.

"Just trust me," he replied, pushing his fingers through his hair and eyeing me. "Just wait, I'm going to blow your minds."

"What the what? You're in the NSA?" she asked a couple seconds later. "This is crazy."

"What's crazy? What's happening?" I cried, eager to be let in on the situation. "Was there more homework I didn't do? I have a super-flaky partner, I can't get any zeros because I'm going to fail that project."

Both of them ignored my rant and Noah quickly started explaining what Audrey found. "That video of Emma looked like it was from a webcam, so I _Tron_ -ed my way into the root directory and I found some pretty nasty malware.

"Lets you access webcams, security systems, phones…" he trailed off, waiting for the two of us to catch up.

"And it's attached to our language arts homework?" Audrey asked.

"Mr. Branson's the one killing everyone?" I gasped, placing all the pieces together.

"Not necessarily, but I do think he's a pawn," Noah replied, eager to explain what he'd thought about all night instead of sleeping. "I think Nina was using him, that he's innocent of doing things other than sleeping with underage students… but that's just a hunch."

"That's an unholy alliance if I've ever heard of one," Audrey quipped, making me nod my head in agreement.

"Exactly, and I want to go check his room out," Noah said, heading down the hall and giving us no choice but to follow.

"You two go ahead, I have to go deal with something," Audrey said, going the other way down the hall suspiciously.

I nodded before jogging after Noah, rolling my eyes when he actually stopped outside the door instead of going in. "You're brave enough to hack into a server but doors render you immobile? Found you Kryptonite, Superman."

I walked into the room and looked around, but nothing looked any different than it did when we were in class. Then I looked at the desk and saw Mr. Branson's laptop sitting on it: JACKPOT! I hurried over and opened it, clicking around a bit until it woke up.

"Gwen! You can't just invade a man's laptop!"

"Oh, please! He's invading everybody's everything," I shrieked, brushing off his chiding.

"Okay, fine, but let me do it," he said, coming over and standing beside me. "Okay, yeah, here's the malware. Hold on, there are two other IDs. It looks like his student aids also had access."

"Let me guess: Tyler and Nina?" I said, even though I already knew the answer. "And what about this semester…?"

"Riley," he breathed. "Nina, Tyler and Riley."

"Maybe they all knew his dirty little secret and he killed them to keep it under wraps."

I heard footsteps coming down the hallway and knew it had to be Mr. Branson. I mean, who else would it be when you had luck like Noah and I did? I knew I had to think on my feet and made a rash decision.

I maneuvered my body onto the desk and pulled Noah in front of me. Without giving him time to think about what I was doing, I yanked his mouth to mine.

To say he was surprised would be an understatement, so I quickly whispered against his lips. "If you don't play along, it's not going to be very convincing."

He nodded and timidly held my hips so I took control of the kiss. I held the back of his neck and tilted my head, trying to make it look like we were in the middle of an intense make out session. I was probably pushing my boundaries when I moved to deepen the kiss, but Noah let me do in easily.

I had just carded my hands in his hair when someone cleared their throat. Noah bolted back from me and immediately started ruffling his hair. I slipped off the desk and tried to right my t-shirt, anything to make it look like we were embarrassed instead of scared of getting caught.

"Uhm, we were looking for you to talk about Noah's new scene partner," I said, wiping my face with the back of my hand. "I was trying to convince him he needed to do it."

"Well, everybody's paired up already, but I'm sure somebody would be open to a dramatic threesome," Mr. Branson smirked, looking at the two of us.

That made my skin absolutely crawl in disgust. Even if Noah and I were going at it on his desk, he had no right to say that to us as an educator. I stopped liking him that very moment and didn't see that changing any time soon.

"Noah?" he asked, shaking me out of my anger. "Are you up for it? I'm sure Gwen would love to add you to her group."

"Uh, yeah, I'll definitely think on it. Thanks, Mr. B," Noah stammered, making me roll my eyes.

I grabbed his hand and yanked him out of the classroom. I didn't want to be around that creep any longer than I had to be. We made it out to his car before I remembered what I'd done and felt embarrassment filling my stomach.

"I am so sorry about attacking you again! I thought on my feet and that was the first one," I apologized, immediately getting stutter and sweaty.

"Uhm, no, it wasn't an attack. It was a very, uh, smart way to cover our tracks," he said, rubbing the back of his neck and looking anywhere but at me. "Raspberry?"

I raised my eyebrows and asked, "Huh?"

"Your lip gloss. Is it raspberry?" he asked, finally risking a glance at me and immediately looking away when he caught my eye.

"Uhm, yeah, it's raspberry pomegranate," I replied awkwardly.

"It's nice, very sweet," he cringed. "God, that was terrible. I'm gonna be The Virgin forever."

That made me genuinely laugh and wrap my arm around his shoulders. "It's okay, we're going to be The Virgin _s_ forever together."

* * *

 **So am I forgiven for being MIA for so long?**


	8. Chapter 8

**I AM SO SORRY I HAVEN'T UPDATED IN SO LONG, BUT HERE'S A NEW CHAPTER!**

 **Also, this chapter is split into two parts because it was WAY too long to be just one.**

* * *

I played with my fingers nervously as I waited for Noah to pick me up the next morning. I hadn't talked to him since the awkward car ride home last night. What was the proper protocol for making out with your best friend to cover up snooping through your teacher's computer for clues about murder and then not talking about it? I was new and completely ignorant to all of this.

The sound of tires crunching on gravel signaled his arrival and I let out a breath I'd been holding. I tucked my hands in my cardigan pockets and tried to make it not look like I was trudging as I made my way to his car. My stomach was in knots by the time I opened the door; maybe I was making a big deal out of something that wasn't a big deal. I could hope, right?

"Hey," he said, smiling dorkily at me. "How are you this morning? Any run-ins with crazy teachers or bloodthirsty students hell-bent on revenge?"

"Someone watched the _Halloween_ movie marathon on AMC last night," I grinned, falling into our regular banter gratefully. "Where was my invite, Foster?"

"Would you believe it got lost in the mail?" he laughed, turning onto the main road that led to the high school. "I mean, I sent it."

I rolled my eyes before looking out the window by my shoulder. The town looked normal, nothing like a town that would hold a homegrown serial killer. I guess it was always like that in horror movies though, no one ever thought their particular town would go under until it did. I was watching a hedge line pass when some unnatural movement caught my eye. There was someone moving out of the hedges and into the shadows!

They stayed too far away for me to see any details with my limited vision; I was basically blind, even with contacts in. All I saw was a body with a black hood over the head and hands tucked into pockets. Whoever it was really wanted to stay inconspicuous and unnoticed. A shiver coursed through me –what if that was the person that killed Nina, Tyler, and Riley?!

"So then I had sex with Kieran and now I'm pregnant with his baby. Emma's kinda upset, but I think she'll get over it and give us a wonderful shower," Noah said, making me look at him with raised brows. "Just seeing if you were paying attention, you were spacing out that window pretty hard."

"I'm sorry, I just thought I saw someone by the hedges back there," I told him shakily. "I didn't really sleep very well last night, I was too wound up."

His cheeks dusted pink and he tapped his hands against the steering wheel nervously. "Yeah, I know what you mean. Why do you think I watched Michael Myers chase scream queens for six hours?"

"I'm sorry, I keep making things weird between us. I swear I won't do it ever again, SWEAR," I said, still not looking at him. "Jesus, I'm a mess."

"Yeah, I don't think it's just you," he said under his breath right as Audrey banged her fist against his window.

"You woke me up at three in the morning ranting about some breaking news about Branson being the murderer. You'd better have world changing news or you're gonna be murdered," she barked, glaring at him icily.

I guess that was the end of our conversation for now, but I wanted to know what he meant by what he said. He jumped out of the car and led the two of us into the school. His sudden discovery explained why I had to be ready for school almost an hour earlier. He wanted to do something in the building without running risk of getting caught again.

"He's definitely hiding something; I did some digging into 'Mr. Seth Branson,'" he said as we walked briskly down the hallway. "You know what I found?"

"He doesn't exist?" Audrey supplied.

"No, c'mon, it's 2015. I found four guys, but none of them are our Mr. Branson," Noah continued.

"That's kind of sketchy, but maybe he doesn't have any social media. Stranger things have happened, even in 2015," I said, playing devil's advocate.

"That's an option, but it's not the right one. This Mr. Branson didn't exist until he moved to Lakewood," Noah grinned, finally looking at the two of us and pausing in the middle of the hall across form Branson's classroom. "You don't change your name unless you've got a secret."

"Like trolling teens through their webcams to find a victim," Audrey said, following the same brain wave Noah's was on.

"Exactly!" he agreed. "Cops turn themselves inside out searching for logical suspects, but we could just be looking at your garden-variety psychopath."

"So Branson's a Manson?" I questioned, knitting my brows together as I tried to piece the puzzle together like they were. "I don't buy it."

"Yeah, well, neither did the victims of the BTK Killer 'til they were staring down the business end of a boning knife," he argued.

"I thought Branson was your favorite teacher…" I said, looking at him curiously.

"He is," Noah said dismissively. "Which is why the possibility is so alarming. I mean, maybe he was being manipulated by a different psychopath… Nina."

"What? Did Nina discover some deep, dark secret about him and blackmail him into planting the malware on everyone's computers?" I asked in disbelief. "That's crazy!"

"Not really, not any crazier than what's happening in Lakewood right now," Noah replied, looking me in the eye. "Kids are being murdered, our language arts teacher isn't who he says he is, and our friend Emma's dad was stabbed by our very own Leatherface!"

"If this is actually what's happening, then everyone Nina trolled could have a motive to kill her," Audrey said, trying to smooth things over. "The guys she slept with, the guys she didn't, the girls who envied her, and the girls who despised her."

"That is a huge list," I said, trying to go along with what they were saying even if I thought it was crazy. "It basically says everyone's a subject, the three of us included."

Noah's face turned creepy and made me snort with laughter. Audrey looked up at me and then at him before laughing along with me. The boy had a pretty good resting creep face, I had to admit it.

* * *

We were all sitting in class, me trying to not look as weary about Branson as I was. Every time he came near me, Will, and Noah, my entire body would tense and I would stop breathing. When Noah's hand reached for mine under our desks, I nearly jumped out of my skin.

"Gwen? Are you okay?" Will asked, looking at me with raised brows. "I can feel the tension coming off you."

"I'm good," I replied, smiling at him and watching his cheeks dust pink as he looked at the desk. "Let's just finish this stupid project."

There was a brief knock on the door before it opened and two police officers came in. "Mr. Branson? We have some questions for one of you students. Audrey Jensen, can you come with us, please?"

Noah's grip on my hand tightened uncomfortably as Audrey met out eyes. She looked absolutely terrified; the only reason they could want to talk to her would be because she was a suspect. I mean, hadn't they already ruled Rachel was a suicide, no matter what Audrey argued? They couldn't be asking her anymore questions about that, there couldn't be any left.

As soon as the door closed, the room erupted into rapid whispers including Will. "What the hell could the cops want with Audrey?"

"Maybe they wanted to talk to her about what happened with Rachel…? Tie up some loose ends?" I didn't sound very confident and was basically clinging to Noah's hand with both of mine now.

"That's a phone call, not a perp walk out of class," Noah hissed.

When the bell rang, Emma rushed over to the two of us while Will stalked away. I guess the two of them still weren't talking. I wouldn't talk if I found out I was a bet AND my first time was filmed then distributed to the entire school population. She glanced down at mine and Noah's interlaced fingers but didn't say anything, I guess she was too concerned about Audrey to ask too many questions. That was a good thing because I couldn't seem to make myself let go of his hand.

"What just happened?" she asked, sitting in the seat Will just abandoned.

"We found out the webcam malware came from Mr. Branson's homework server," Noah explained quietly, his thumb rubbing soothing circles over my tense knuckles. "And he's using a fake name."

"Wait –Mr. Branson brings his soup to school in a thermos," Emma said skeptically, not exactly following what Noah was trying to say.

"Villains have to eat, too," I reminded her.

"Exactly," Noah said, picking up where I dropped off. "Kingpin eats; the Joker eats. Bane probably doesn't because of his mask, but there's probably some sort of, like, nutrient…"

"Hey, Noah, can we focus for a second?" Emma asked, snapping her fingers to regain his attention.

"The bad news is Mr. Branson might have seen us looking at his laptop," I said, my nerves leaving so I could finally talk without stuttering. "If he thought we could expose him, he might have tried to scare us by trying to frame Audrey for the murders…"

"Why are you guys still here? Didn't class end a while ago?" Mr. Branson asked, coming into the room and making my heart hit my knees.

"Mr. Branson! Hey! Hi," Noah said nervously, making me roll my eyes and turn to face him after I dropped Noah's hand.

"We were just talking to Emma about how her project with Kieran was going. Noah, Will, and I have no idea what we're doing and thought we could get some ideas," I said, thinking on my feet quickly.

"About that, I was actually thinking that with Noah's propensity for speeches he could do a monologue," Mr. Branson replied.

"Oh, I don't know about that. I'm kinda shy…" Noah replied even though we all knew that was a total lie.

"Let me show you some options," Mr. Branson challenged, not really giving Noah much of a choice.

Noah's eyes met mine and I'm sure they were full of fear. "Oh, okay. Yeah, I'll just hang around here for a second to talk to you about my monologue."

As much as I hated it, I left the room with Emma. The two of us sat on one of the benches in the hallway to wait for Noah. I didn't want to put too much distance between us while he was alone with the possible killer of Lakewood.

"So you and Noah, huh?" she asked, trying to make conversation. "When did that happen?"

"Uh, yeah, we're not technically a thing," I told her. "We needed a diversion when Mr. Branson almost caught us looking through his laptop. The first thing I thought of was Branson walking in on us making out so that's what I did. Now we're in this weird limbo thing between friends and more, honestly I have no idea what we're doing…"

"Oh, that's definitely interesting. I've always thought he had a thing for you, it's cool you're finally working it out," she told me. "Sort of, I suppose."

Thankfully, the door opened and Noah walked out with Mr. Branson's hand on his shoulder. He thanked him before hurrying over to me and Emma.

"Noah? What happened in there?" Emma asked, scooting over to let Noah sit between the two of us.

" _Henry the Fifth_ or _Napoleon Dynamite_ ," he told us with a smirk. "I gotta admit, Mr. Branson so gets my deep-seated hero conflict."

I rolled my eyes and shoved his shoulder harshly. "You idiot, I was about to call 911."

"I think Audrey was right about Mr. Branson being innocent. Maybe he's not a psychopath," Noah said, pushing his shoulder against mine in apology. "If Tyler loaded the malware for Nina while he was the student aid, Mr. B could just be this innocent pawn."

"But what about his fake name?" I asked, not entirely convinced of Mr. Branson's innocence just yet.

"Oh, yeah, well, I actually got that covered," he said, smiling at me and kind of ignoring Emma's presence completely for a second. "I asked Mr. B to input his number into my phone, in case I wanted to rap about monologues. I also programmed this app to record his fingerprints while he did so. If I can trace the past…"

"We can find out if Walter White is actually Heisenberg!" I said, hugging Noah in excitement. "Oh my god, you're a genius, Noah Foster!"

My phone vibrated in my pocket and I quickly pulled away from Noah. I remembered that Emma was with us and we hadn't figured out exactly what we were just yet. I smiled tensely as I fished it out of my sweater, seeing an unknown number on the screen.

"Don't answer," Noah said automatically.

"That hasn't done me very well so far. I say answer it," Emma retorted, making more sense than Noah.

"Hello?"

"Gwen! Thank god you answered, this is Audrey," her voice was quiet and really tense.

"Audrey! Are you okay? You just got arrested in the middle of language arts class!" I said, putting her on speaker so the others could hear her.

"Listen, I need a really big favor," she said, ignoring my question. After I agreed, she continued, "Go to my house, get the SD card from September 30th and destroy it. Please don't watch it."

The line went dead after that and the three of us just looked at each other. Whatever was on the SD card had something to do with why she was calling us illegally in the middle of an integration room. The card had something bad on it and we had to go get it before the police found it.

"What do you think is on that card?" Emma asked a couple seconds after the call ended.

"I don't know, I don't care," Noah said, running a hand through his hair anxiously. "But we should just go get it."

"But, guys, what if it's…" Emma started, but I cut her off quickly.

"Audrey didn't kill Nina, there's no way. Nina was a bitch to her, but she was a bitch to everyone. If that's people's only evidence of her being a murder, than everyone else is also a suspect," I replied, annoyance bubbling to the surface.

"Okay, you're right. I'm sorry," Emma said, embarrassment coloring her voice. "Let's go do this."

* * *

 **This is the best part I could split it, I hope it's still good.**

 **THANKS FOR READING!**


	9. Chapter 9

**A lot of you have been suggesting that I give Gwen her own run in with the killer, and I'm here to tell you that it's already in the works. I've been planning it for a while now and am about to start writing the chapter. I'll try my best to keep it from being cliche, but it's also going to be a big thing for Gwen and Noah.**

 **Yeah, that has nothing to do with this chapter I just thought I'd tell you all about the future of this story.**

* * *

Twenty minutes later we were at Audrey's back door. Noah looked where the extra key used to be, but the rock was empty this time. The disappointment was clear on his face, we were screwed.

"Damn, they used to hide their key there," he exclaimed.

"Yeah, we used to leave our back door unlocked," Emma replied, putting everything into perspective for both of us. "And then a serial killer happened."

"Okay, what's our plan B?" I asked, trying to keep our spirits high. "We've still got to get this SD card."

"Well, there's no alarm so…" Noah trailed off, picking up the fake rock and smashing one of the planes of glass on the back door.

"Subtle, Batman," I snorted, watching him unlock the door and push it open for the three of us.

I led the way up to Audrey's room, but that was where my leading stopped. I had no idea where she kept her SD cards, her room wasn't exactly organized. There was an entire chair made of chairs, more so than the chair I had in my room and that was saying something.

"Where does she keep her SD cards?" Emma asked, looking at Noah.

"What do I look like? Her personal assistant?" he asked, putting his hands on his hips indignantly.

I giggled despite the situation and saw Noah wink at me playfully. I appreciated his ability to keep things light and funny in such a stressful situation. Just add that to the list of reasons I adored him, it just seemed to be getting longer and longer.

"Well, you look like someone who might know where she would keep her SD cards," Emma replied snarkily.

"This would be so much easier if Audrey was more organized," I sighed, looking around on her desk before opening up the drawers. "Jackpot, I found them, you guys!"

I looked through them until I found the one from September 30th and pocketed it. We all froze when we heard a car door close outside. We were about to be caught breaking and entering in our best friend's house to remove evidence that might condemn her to prison!

When I looked out Audrey's window, I saw it faced the side of her house. We could slide down her roof and get to Emma's car without getting caught as long as we were careful and quiet. I got the other's attention and motioned toward the window before following through with my plan as they watched.

Okay, sliding down a roof is a lot easier said than done with the rough shingles. It looked so much higher than one story, but I had to do it. I couldn't get arrested, my family didn't like me enough to bail me out and I couldn't stay there. I was too tiny, I knew all prisons weren't like Litchfield and I didn't really find girls attractive sexually so…

I took a deep breath before crawling out the window and sliding down to the edge on my butt. I said a prayer to whoever was out there before I jumped and rolled on the impact. Maybe my past as a gymnast was helpful after all. It just took me five years to realize.

I somersaulted back onto my feet before turning to look at the other two. Both their jaws were slack and their eyes were impressed. I bowed dramatically before gesturing stupidly for them to follow my lead. Emma came down next, basically mimicking what I did, but Noah was a different story. He jumped and hit the ground, knocking the air out of his lungs painfully.

Emma and I basically packed him back to her car and pushed him into the backseat, driving until we were back at the video game store. Thankfully, Noah's breathing was normal again and the SD card was still in my jeans' pocket. I kept catching him staring at me, but I didn't ask while we were with Emma.

I sat the SD card on the table and handed the hammer to Emma. "She was your friend first, that means you've got to destroy the evidence."

"I can't do it!" she cried, holding the hammer over it for a couple minutes. "You do it!"

"No can do, I feel like Frodo with the ring at Mount Doom," Noah exclaimed, pushing the hammer away when Emma extended it to him.

"Look, whatever's on there has to be really bad or Audrey wouldn't want us to destroy it," I said, flopping back onto the couch behind the table. "And that makes me want to know what's on it even more."

"It has to make her look guilty," Emma agreed, sitting down beside me.

"Guilty of what?" Noah asked. "Murdering four people, including her girlfriend? Do you know how Japanese gameshow that sounds?"

Emma shrugged before she said, "There's one thing I can't seem to shake. That guy who's been calling me should be rubbing this in my face, but he's not. I actually haven't heard from him all day, Audrey's been with the police most of the day…"

Emma's phone rang a little while later and she found out the police wanted to question her. We all pinky swore we wouldn't say anything and she left the two of us alone with the SD card. We also swore we wouldn't watch it unless all of us decided it was a good idea.

"So, what do we do until Emma comes back?" I asked awkwardly.

"How about we talk about how badass you looked when you jumped off that roof and then Bruce Lee rolled onto your feet?" he suggested, looking at me out of the corner of his eye.

My faced heated up and I looked down at my lap instead of at him. "Hush, it wasn't even that cool. I just took a couple gymnastic classes when I was younger."

"But you did it in heels. It was pretty hot," he remarked, stretching his feet out onto the table and crossing his arms behind his head.

"Shut up, you hacking into the homework server and then using that app to get Branson's finger prints was pretty hot!" I said, hitting his shoulder with mine.

"So your type is black hat turned white hat hackers?" he asked, the smirk evident in his voice. "Just think of me as your own personal Nick Hathaway."

I rolled my eyes and looked over at him, only to see he was already looking at me. He sat up slowly and reached out to cup my jaw, stroking his thumb over my cheekbone. I pulled my bottom lip between my teeth and held his intense blue eyed stare. The tension between us was so thick -I don't think we were just best friends anymore, we'd crossed over into new territory.

"You're really pretty, Gwen," he breathed, leaning closer to me and holding my intense gaze. "Like, prettier than anyone I've ever seen."

His admission made something flutter from my stomach to my heart to the back of my throat. Noah thought I was the prettiest girl he'd ever seen, ME. We were leaning into each other slowly when the bell above the door rang. I didn't even think anyone knew this place existed. In the hundreds of times I've been here, no one was ever here other than Noah, Audrey, Emma, or me.

"Are you serious? Everyone does their business here online," he groaned, leaning his forehead against mine in frustration. "I'll be right back, don't go anywhere."

I laughed at how flustered he looked, waiting until he was gone to pull out my phone. Emma was freaking out about being questioned, but she said she'd be back at the store as soon as the police were done. I was almost positive we would be watching whatever Audrey didn't want us to see on the SD card.

About ten more minutes passed and Noah rushed back into the room with me. I'd taken off my heels and tucked my feet under me with my laptop on my lap. I had a five page research paper due next week and figured this would be the perfect time to do it. I mean, when else would I have free time in the foreseeable future?

"Hi, I'm back. Where were we?" he asked, slipping back onto the couch and glancing at my laptop screen. "Or you could be researching venereal diseases instead. That's definitely an option, a weird one, but an option."

"I have a five page research paper due next week over chlamydia, dork. I figured I'd work on it while you did your job," I smiled, pushing his leg with my foot. "Emma said she'd be here after the police let her go, I'm pretty sure we're watching whatever's on the SD card…"

"Yeah, that was what I was thinking, too. I trust Audrey with my life, but there has to be something incriminating on that card she doesn't want us to see," he agreed, pushing my foot back down. "I'd rather know about it than not know, you know?"

"All I know is you just said the word 'know' way too many times," I told him, barely holding back my giggles.

He just rolled his eyes before taking my laptop off my lap and sitting it on the table. He didn't give me time to question why before he started tickling my ribs. I screeched with laughter and tried to get him off me to no avail. My sweater fell from my shoulders and my top rose to just below my bra, but I couldn't stop laughing long enough to right either of them.

"Am I interrupting something?" Emma asked, making Noah stop tickling me and the two of us look up to see her standing in the doorway.

I looked at us and saw that our position did look really compromising. One of Noah's thighs was between my legs and my shirt was pushed all the way up with my sweater on the floor. Our hair was all messed up and his shirt was crooked; it seriously seemed like she'd walked in on his making out. Wonderful.

"Yeah, we were just talking about the SD card," Noah said, sitting up quickly and righting his shirt and hair. "Isn't that right, Gwen?"

"Oh, how quickly you dismiss our love, Noah!" I exclaimed, putting myself back together and making Emma laugh. "Okay, we decided that, as long as you agree, we should watch whatever's on the SD card."

"I'd rather know than wonder, but I'm still having some moral ambivalence," Emma sighed, sitting in the empty space beside me. "But I need to watch it, let's do it."

I grabbed my laptop from the table and ignored Emma's questioning gaze about the websites feature chlamydia treatments. I minimized all those tabs and put the SD card inside, double clicking on the only video link on the entire card.

Audrey appeared on the screen and she looked beyond angry. "Stop filming me!"

A feminine giggle sounded in the background before another girl started talking. "No, you need to see yourself. You don't even know if Nina did this."

"Of course she did it! She has been torturing me my entire life, but not anymore!" Audrey hissed, her eyes still blazing intensely.

"If we do this, we are even worse than Nina."

"So what?! I'm supposed to keep taking this? Screw that! People like Nina dump on everybody and you what happens to them? Nothing! They marry billionaires and wear _Prada_ in their climate-trashing yachts. Because karma just doesn't happen! Sometimes you have to take it into your own hands!" Audrey was raging at this point in the video.

"Audrey, please!"

"Tonight, I'm Shiva the Destroyer, and I'm coming for that sorry bitch!" she continued, ignoring Rachel completely. "When I'm done, she'll never bully anyone ever again. I SAID TURN THAT OFF!"

"Oh man, what did we just watch?" Noah asked after I closed the lid of my laptop and sat it back on the table.

"There's no way that was actually what we think. No way," I breathed, still trying to process what we just say.

"Why did you guys make me watch that?!" Emma shrieked.

"This can't be how it looks!" Noah argued desperately.

"You mean how it looks like severely premeditate murder?" I asked in a hollow voice. "Because that's exactly what it looked and sounded like to me!"

"I seriously need a _Men in Black_ memory swipe right now."

"Guys, we know Audrey," Emma tried to reason even if it sounded kind of shaky.

"Yeah, we do," Noah agreed. "I always believed Audrey was capable of murder, but, like, in an 'isn't my best friend a badass, I'll never lose a bar fight' kind of way."

"Look, I have to go. I don't want to be anywhere near that thing," Emma murmured, standing up and rushing out of the store.

"I don't think I'll ever get that video out of my head," I whispered, still staring at the top of my computer. "Audrey didn't kill Nina, there's no way. Audrey wouldn't have killed anyone ever, I know it in my heart of hearts."

"I do, too," he said, wrapping his arm around me and pulling me close to his chest. "I do, too."

* * *

 **I couldn't wait to post this chapter, so here it is.**

 **Thanks for reading! Leave a review and tell me how you feel about the story so far!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Hey, here's the new chapter! This episode is split into two parts, sorry 'bout it.**

* * *

I was in the library working on my paper when Noah sat down beside me. He waggled his eyebrows dorkily, taking out his own homework to work on. The two of us worked in silence until I felt eyes on me, when I looked up I caught him staring. Instead of looking away like usual, he kept staring with his lips tilted up into a smile.

"Hiya," he whispered, brushing some of my hair behind my ear. "I like your hair like this."

I placed my bottom lip between my teeth scrunched my nose up. "Hush, I didn't even do anything to it this morning. I just dried it and left."

He twisted a lock of it around his finger, smiling at me shyly. "I'm really glad you sat with me and Audrey the first day you were here."

"I always feel like I'm interrupting something when I find you guys," Emma said, sitting at the other end of our table. "I'm sorry."

Noah dropped his hand from my hair, but I noticed he looked annoyed instead of embarrassed this time. I pushed that away and asked, "It's cool, what's up?"

"Do either of you have any idea where Audrey is?" she asked, leaning forward to get closer to us. "She's not answering her phone."

"She's taking the midterm she missed while she was audition to be the new Alex Vause," Noah replied. "Her phone's probably off. Are you okay?"

"No, not really," she sighed, which wasn't a big surprise –she only talked to us when she needed something. "Look, Will needs help."

"With what? Finding his moral compass?" I asked, looking at her incredulously.

"No, finding his phone," she replied, either missing or ignoring my tone. "Do you know how to find it, Noah?"

"Yeah, it's an app called 'Find my Phone'…" he replied, looking at her with the same expression I had earlier.

"Okay, let's say he doesn't have that app," she said, still trying to allude us from the actual reason she needed us.

"Well, I may be familiar with some GPS guidance software," he told her, smirking happily.

"There you go with that black hat talk…" I winked, figuring all best were off when it came to whatever we were now.

He returned my wink before he continued talking to Emma. "The question is, why would I do tech support for him? Why would you?"

She swallowed thickly and it was clear she was still in love with him, despite his mistakes. "So he doesn't die."

I'm sure my jaw dropped, but I don't know why. That wasn't even the strangest thing I've heard since I've been in Lakewood. I mean, Noah and I heard Riley get murdered via FaceTime a few weeks ago.

"Okay, that's a pretty good reason," he said, gathering his things and putting them in his bag before grabbing his phone. "All I need is his number and I can track it through DRADIS."

Emma looked at me and I just shrugged. It didn't matter how much time I spent with Noah, his techy jargon was still a complete mystery to me. She rattled off the digits from memory and he got to work, focusing on the screen in front of him and blocking out everything else.

A little while passed before he made an excited noise. "I've got an address, lead the way to your car, Emma."

We hauled ourselves out into her car and I slipped into the backseat. Noah gave directions as Emma drove recklessly, she must still be really in love with Will. I hope Noah or Audrey would rush to find me in a situation like this.

She parked in front of a big abandoned building that made my skin crawl. This had to be the right place, I'd become accustomed to creepy buildings and following my gut instinct. Noah seemed to agree because his eyes met mine in the rearview mirror and he shook his head. He also didn't feel very comfortable here.

"I'm going in," Emma said with a note of finality in her voice.

I heard her door open and close, leaving Noah and I sitting on the side of the road. Then I saw Brooke and Jake rushing up to her, I hadn't even realized they were following us. I guess Emma called them while Noah did some possibly illegal tracking. I seriously needed to work on my observation skills, they sucked.

"You know we have to go with them, right?" Noah asked, letting out a breath and opening his door.

"No, I wasn't aware of that. I don't even know those people, I seriously don't want to rush into the obvious trap this psychopath has waiting," I said, crossing my arms over my chest. "No way, I'm not doing it."

"The thing is, I don't trust Jake or Brooke to be alone with Emma. I'm actually working on this theory of Jake being the killer," he explained, closing his door and turning around to face me. "I can't knowingly spin this theory without actual proof, I have to go and need you to go with me for moral support."

The entire walk to the abandoned building with the others I was grumbling under my breath. I felt Noah sling his arm around my shoulders, trying his best to comfort me. I wasn't lying when I said I didn't want to rush into a trap, I was afraid. I didn't want to die yet, I wanted to at least graduate from high school before that happened and possibly kiss Noah without the ruse of a diversion. I was a big fan of small goals, it made life a little easier to accomplish.

"Okay, it's time to weapon up," Noah said, eyeing the ominous building with a raised brow. "It's a creepy building with spotty cell signal and a psycho killer. The perfect setup of a mass murder."

"I got a skinner and a gut hook," Jake said, holding up a huge ass knife that made my skin crawl uncomfortably.

"Wait, why do you need that?" I asked, choosing to use my curiosity instead of my terror. "That's the biggest knife I've ever seen."

Jake looked at me with raised brows and said, "To skin and gut things? Duh, blondie!"

I don't know what I expected, but that definitely wasn't it. I slid impossibly closer to Noah and saw Brooke raise her brow in surprise. I guess the two of us weren't as obviously in love as Emma and Audrey made us out to be. Just as I was thinking that, Emma's phone rang and she excused herself to answer it.

"We have to find a way inside," I said, trying to not shiver every time Jake looked at me for too long.

"Right, let's split up and search for clues, gang," Brooke said sassily.

"I call blondie!" Jake said, loping over to me and wrapping his arm possessively around my shoulders. "If we have team names, we call 'totally gonna bang later.'"

I was disgusted but going with Jake would help me search for clues about his involvement. "Fine, but I'd rather tear my eyeballs out and wear them as earrings than bang you. Understood, Neanderthal?"

"I love it when you take charge," he winked.

"I'm coming with you!" Noah said, rushing over to the two of us.

"Uh, I'm not a big fan of threesomes with other dudes," Jake said, eyeing Noah suspiciously. "I get that you want her and everything, but she's on the Jake train right now. You can have my sloppy seconds if you want."

"Seriously? This is what you think we should be doing right now? Your best friend is missing and you're claiming Gwen like some lost luggage at an airport?" Emma shouted, making Jake look almost sheepish. "You three go that way, Brooke and I will go this way. If you find a way in, shout for us and we'll do the same."

"This sounds like the first of many bad decisions," Noah said ominously. "Write your blood type on your boots and leave your letters to your loved ones."

"Let's Shake n' Jake!"

Wow, this was the team I was exploring an old abandoned building with a possible psycho inside. I had a very, very bad feeling about the outcome of today. I seriously needed to start making better decisions.

Emma and I were leading the groups, we made eye contact one final time and nodded before breaking up. Birds were squawking and some sort of animal was chittering in the bushes, making my nerves even more frazzled. It wasn't helpful that Jake kept jabbing at the air with his knife every couple seconds. Now that Noah mentioned him being a suspect, I kind of saw it…

"Be careful up here, there's a lot of broken glass," I said over my shoulder, crunching carefully in my high tops. "Wouldn't want either of you to fall and cut yourself. We're way past the point of medical aid."

"Seriously, as much as I love a good indie horror flick, this is really terrifying," Noah confided, tucking his hands in his jacket pockets as he looked for an entrance. "This whole thing, leading us here, it's like he wants Emma to think she has some sort of power. Then he can just take it all away in a millisecond."

"It sounds almost like you've got a hard-on for the guy or something," Jake said, elbowing Noah's ribs playfully like the entire situation was a joke.

"What? No! He's like this crazy, psycho loser, killer guy!" he exclaimed.

I just rolled my eyes, I had the WORST crime fighting duo on my hands. I seriously missed Bi-Curious right now, the Virgins could definitely use her help instead of the Neanderthal… Neanderthal and the Virgins didn't have quite as nice of a ring to it.

"If this dick wanted Emma to find Will so bad, why didn't he leave a door open or something?" Jake asked, raising a very good question. "I mean, a trap's a trap, right?"

"This is the one and only time I'm ever going to be impressed with you, Jake Fitzgerald," I said, nodding my head in his direction. "Noah, you're our resident horror movie expert. Why is there not an obvious entrance marked with flashing lights and a sign?"

"He's playing cat and mouse," he replied, looking at us with raised brows. "He likes to play with his food before he eats it."

We'd almost came full circle when Emma shouted for us. She and Brooke found the entrance and it didn't seem too complicated to get into. Oh my God, this was most definitely a trap. I liked Will well enough, but I wasn't sure I was ready to die for him.

Noah slipped his hand into mine, intertwining our fingers. I guess he was having the same thought as me, maybe this wasn't a good idea. I looked over at him and we shared a look of fear, then we followed Jake around to where Emma and Brooke were waiting.

Not to sound like a broken record or anything, but the entrance was way too easy and this was a total trap. "Guys, am I the only one that thinks the entrance is way too simple? This looks like the most cliché trap I've ever seen in my life."

"You don't have to come!" Emma shouted in frustration. "I told you all you didn't have to come, it's my fault Will's in there and I have to go get him."

I flinched and took a step back, almost standing behind Noah. She didn't apologize, she just used a crowbar _conveniently_ on the ground and pried the boards off the door. We all followed her inside, me bringing up the rear with Noah's hand still held tightly in mine.

"Hello? Will?" Emma shouted, but nothing responded.

"It's a bowling alley," Brooke said, eyeing the abandoned lanes across from us.

"Whoa! That's the most mack daddy jaguar-and-space-shuttle mural I've ever seen!" Noah exclaimed, gesturing to the wall.

"Oh my god, I bet it even glows in the dark!" I said, grinning at Noah goofily.

"Something tells me it's not the only thing that glows in the dark in here," Brooke gagged, eyeing something that looked suspiciously like a used condom on the floor. "This place is capital D disgusting."

I was tense the entire time we walked through the front of the bowling alley. I didn't want to be here, but I couldn't let Will die because I was scared. I'd dropped Noah's hand a while ago, but I made sure to stay close to him with Jake in sight. I still didn't trust him very much.

"I understand why he took me to the hospital, but why would he bring Will here?" Emma asked a little while later as we explored the creep building together.

"Maybe we should split up and look for Will. This place is big," Jake suggested, making all kinds of red flags pop up in my mind.

"Said no one who survived a horror movie, ever," Noah exclaimed in exasperation.

"Fine, I call searching with blondie again, sans the nerd this time," Jake said, using his biggest smile and winking at me for emphasis. "It'll be fun, I'll protect you from the scary psycho killer."

"This is so stupid!" I huffed, grabbing Jake's arm and stomping off to the right with Brooke close behind us. "If I die, I'm going to be so pissed at you, Fitzgerald."

"This is a threesome I can definitely get behind!" Brooke slapped Jake's arm so I didn't have to.

We searched silently together for a while until she said, 'So quiet…"

"Yeah, until all the running and screaming starts," Jake replied.

I slapped his chest with the back of my hand and heard Brooke snicker under her breath. "She's right, Neanderthal. It's way too quiet, it feels like something's about to happen."

"I'm not leaving here without Will," Brooke said, a tone finality in her voice. "This bastard already took Riley from me, he can't have them both…even if he was kinda asking for it."

"Why are you looking, blondie? I didn't think you really liked Will too much," Jake asked a little while later after we'd checked a couple rooms.

"I don't know Will, I just know he's important to Emma. I'd hate if someone took my boyfriend to get back at me." I was looking under a counter when I spoke, not really paying much attention to what I was saying. "Even if I don't necessarily have one right now."

"So are you taking applications, blondie?" Jake asked, coming up behind me and leaning next to where my hand was resting. "Because the Jake man is perfect for the job."

"Oh my god, are you seriously trying to get into my pants right now?" This kid was insatiable! "We're looking for your missing best friend in a sketchy, abandoned bowling alley!"

"I'll take that as a maybe, babe," he told me, waggling his brows. "Nature calls, ladies."

My eyes seemed to be on a permanent lazy Susan whenever Jake Fitzgerald was involved: always rolling. Brooke reacted similarly, leaning back against the wall with a sigh. I wanted to see what her feel on Jake was, even if he was one of her best friends, she could still think he was the killer.

"Okay, I'm just going to say this to you and be done with it. I have a theory that Jake might be the killer," I whispered, putting all my cards on the proverbial table. "I mean, he thought Will was going to meet your dad last night. If he thought it was dangerous, wouldn't he have stopped him? I definitely would've stopped Noah or Audrey."

"Why would it have been dangerous? My dad's not a dangerous man!" She was defensive and my inner sleuth wanted to know why, but I squelched the urge for now and stuck to the topic at hand.

"Yet Will and Piper got attacked and kidnapped when they went to meet him. That kind of sounds dangerous to me," I insisted.

"Whatever, I don't have to listen to his. When Jake comes back, tell him he can either stay with you or come find me." And with that she huffed and stomped off, leaving me alone in the creepy bowling alley.

I don't care if there's a psychopathic killer loose in your town or not, when you're left alone in the dark you always feel eyes on you. I guess it didn't help that I hated bowling and everything about this place. The pathetic desire I had for Noah to be here with me made my inner feminist rage, I was as good at defending myself as Noah would've been if not better.

The feeling of eyes on me grew more intense and I heard something fall in the distance. I whirled around, but I seemed to be alone in the weird concession area. I didn't have a semblance of a weapon on me, a mistake on my part. Then I saw Jake's bag sitting next to the counter, I reached in and grabbed his "gutter" to use as protection if need be.

"Jake, can you hurry? This place gives me the creeps!" I cried, trying to get someone out here that could be some kind of protection or a distraction, also I could probably run faster than him if I had to.

The unmistakable sound of footsteps echoed against the tiled floor and the hair on the back of my neck stood on end. I wasn't alone anymore and something told me it wasn't Noah, Emma, or Brooke. I counted to ten silently in my head before whirling around. I instantly wished I hadn't, the murderer was standing behind me with the clichéd machete in his hands and the creepy surgical mask on his face.

This girl wasn't going to be another horror movie cliché, I turned on my heels and started running. I zigzagged through things to slow him down, but it wasn't working. The killer had a knowledge of the bowling alley I didn't, he kept coming out right behind me from hidden places.

I rushed back behind the lanes and hid behind one of the pin loaders with my hand covering my mouth. I was breathing way too loud, he was going to hear me. Fear had turned my blood to ice and made sweat pour down my face. I tightened my grip on the knife and tried to convince myself to make an escape.

The surgical mask appeared on the other side of the loader and I made a break through one of the lanes with a racing heart. I was running as fast as I could, but he was faster than me. I felt the blade go through my back, but my adrenaline kept pumping and I didn't feel the actual pain. I had to get away from him before he could hurt me even worse, right now I could still stand and I knew from a semester of anatomy he'd missed any major organs.

I don't know what exactly came over me when I lashed out with Jake's knife, but I did. The knife embedded itself in the psycho's shoulder and, as soon as he fell backward, I made a run for it. I found a janitor's closet and tried to open the door, but my hands were shaking so badly I couldn't get a grip on the handle.

Suddenly the door opened on its own and a mop handle slapped me in the face. I groaned and heard Noah's familiar voice swear before pulling me inside and locking the door again.

"Gwen, you're bleeding! Are you okay?" His voice was surprised and scared at the same time, something I didn't realize could happen. He lifted my shirt and found the source of the blood. "Oh my god, that's a big wound."

"Here, take some of this duct tape and tape up her wound," Emma said, tossing it to Noah after she was finished.

"What happened? Where's Jake?" Brooke's anxious voice asked.

"Seriously, Brooke? That's your question right now?" Will asked in a tired, wheezing voice.

"Hey, good to know you're not dead, hombre," I said in a wheezing voice of my own. "I mean, you've looked better, but beggars can't be choosers, right?"

"Yeah, you've looked better, too," he said, smiling tiredly at me.

"Oh god, Noah, move out of the way," Brooke said, bending over beside us and taking the roll of tape from Noah's shaking hands. "You have to wipe off the blood or it's not going to stick."

"Sorry about earlier. It wasn't fair," I whispered to her, my head starting to ache from where I'd gotten beamed in the head with the mop handle. "Also, who hit me in the face with a mop? That wasn't cool."

"We thought you were the murderer. You're just lucky Brooke didn't tape the rusty knife to it like she wanted before Noah launched it," Emma said, helping Will sit down beside me on the floor.

"Okay, you're taped up. It's not going to hold very long so we've got to get out of here and find Jake," Brooke announced, ripping off the final piece of tape and sticking it to my back. "He's out there alone, he could be really hurt or worse…"

"He was still in the bathroom when I got attacked earlier," I tried to calm her down through the intense pain wracking through my entire body.

"Wait, how do we know he's not the one that attacked Gwen? Maybe he's partnered up with the killer? They're in cahoots or something?" Noah asked from his place beside me with my hand in both of his.

"I'm seriously contemplating throwing the next person who suggests stupid things out to the killer." Brooke's voice was beyond aggravated at this point.

"Uh, guys, not to be an attention seeker or anything, but my back is seriously burning," Will hissed, pulling away pitifully from the cabinet we were leaning against.

Emma pulled up his shirt to check it out and gasped. "B4 is carved into your back. What does that mean?"

They threw around ideas while I tried to manage the pain shooting through my side. I thought period cramps were bad, but this was even worse. Black dots were appearing around my vision and I knew it was because I lost a lot of blood. The duct tape was a good idea, but Brooke was right about it not holding for very long so we had to make out choices fast.


	11. Chapter 11

**This is the conclusion to the episode from the chapter before. It's also one of my favorites.**

* * *

I was trying to focus on other things to get my mind off slowly bleeding to death. I cataloged everything in the janitor's closet. There was a couple mop buckets and a big table with a bunch of bits and bobbles sitting on it, nothing that was helpful as I took a mental inventory of the things. There was also a little room just off the closet with a bunch of boxes attached to the wall. I couldn't see that far away, but I figured they were employee lockers or something.

"Guys there's another room over there with lockers on the wall," I announced, silencing the brewing argument. "I bet that's where B4 is. It's a number on a locker, another game this sicko's playing."

"Gwendolyn, you're a freakin' genius!" Noah exclaimed, pulling my head toward him and kissing the side of it.

Emma disappeared into the other room for a couple seconds and came back out with a paper and cassette tape in her hand. "Guys, Brandon James used to work here, this is his time card. It was in the locker with this cassette tape, I think it's my dad's."

Before any of us could respond the sound system overhead crackled to life. " _Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer, do_."

"And cue the creepy murder music. I thought something was missing." Noah's sarcasm was ever-present, even in the face of danger.

" _All of the love for you_."

"Okay, this is going to be ridiculous, but I'll be right back," Emma told us, moving toward the door.

"You have got to be kidding me. Will and I are bleeding to death because of that person playing this shitty song and you're still going out there?" I asked, the pain becoming a constant thump behind my heart. "Have you lost your mind?"

"Hey, seriously, Em, that's, like, famous last words," Noah insisted from beside me.

"No, Em," Will said, wincing as he tried to stand on his own. "Help me up."

She slipped out of the room while Brooke was helping him stand up. He swore colorfully and hit the table full of bits and bobbles, knocking a couple bobbles to the ground by my hips. Noah reached over and brushed some of the hair out of my face and letting his fingers linger over my cheekbone longer than necessary.

"You're not looking too good, champ," he whispered as Brooke and Will worked to make the knife stick Emma mentioned earlier. "Kinda green around the gills."

"Yeah, I struggle to keep up the façade of being a French runway model when I get stabbed in the side by psychopaths," I quipped, leaning against him as fatigue flooded my body. "I stabbed him in the shoulder with Jake's 'gutter,' maybe it slowed him down."

"You stabbed that dude in the shoulder? You're a little badass," Will said, winking at me and holding the mop as Brooke tapped the knife to the end.

"That's my girl," Noah said, using his arm around my shoulder to hold my head and pressed his lips to the side of my face again.

"This is sickeningly sweet and everything, but we've got to fight our way out of here and get to Emma," Brooke said, her knife stick in hand. "We'll find Jake and make our great escape."

"That's a very good idea, I want to get as far away from here as possible and never go bowling again," I said, trying to stand up and wincing. "Yeah, I need someone to help me stand up."

Noah scrambled up to his feet and helped me, basically lifting me and holding me close to him. With his help I could walk pretty okay and Will seemed to be okay as long as Brooke was helping him. This could possibly work out, if we just took it one step at a time and played it smart.

"We might actually be able to do this, guys." I shouldn't have said that, it was the dumbest thing to ever come out of my mouth.

The door of the janitor's closet tried to bang open. Noah and Brooke leaned Will and I against each other before going to confront the attacker. It also wasn't a smart idea to put the two stab victims against each other, but we were forcing ourselves to stand up.

Will took a big breath and told Brooke to open the door. When she did, he rushed out and held the attacker against the wall so we could escape. I hated leaving him behind, but Noah wasn't giving me much of a choice. We were all rushing past the alleys when I saw a figure slumped over on the ground.

"That's Jake! I've got to go help him, you two find Emma and call the cops." And with that, Brooke was gone.

"They're going to be a thing if we all survive this and she breaks up with her mystery college boyfriend," I said, wincing when talking made it harder to walk.

Noah and I searched for Emma, but moving too much totally zapped my energy and I had to sit down. We were hiding behind the counter with the rental shoes as I struggled to stay conscious. He took my shoulder in his hand and leaned me forward, timidly lifting my shirt to look at my stab wound. He swore colorfully under his breath, I guess the duct tape wasn't doing its job anymore. He put pressure on the wound and tried to keep a straight, worry-free face when he looked back at me, but I could see through it.

"It's bleeding again, isn't it?" I asked, forcing myself to reach up and brush Noah's hair out of his face. A line of scarlet followed on his forehead. "I'm sorry, I got blood on your face."

He leaned forward and kissed my forehead. "It's okay, you're going to be okay. Blood washes out, but you've got to stay conscious for me."

"This is the worst kind of luck," I forced out. "I finally get time alone with you and I'm bleeding on you. This is the worst place to tell you everything."

"What are you talking about? I don't even like this shirt," he laughed stiffly. "What do you have to tell me? It can wait, I'm sure of it."

"Just don't leave me, swear you won't leave me alone?" I was fighting the black spots at this point and I knew I was losing.

"Never."

And everything went black.

* * *

The throbbing pain in my side and head was the first thing I felt when I woke up. I moaned dramatically and forced my eyes open. Noah and Audrey were sitting beside my bed, looking down at me creepily.

"Can you guys not stare at me like I'm in a coffin?" I rasped dryly. "Jesus, I sound like a chain-smoker."

"Ah, I've got this!" Noah said, letting go of my hand long enough to pull a Dr. Pepper out of his backpack. "I brought contraband into the hospital, don't tell."

He put the straw from my water cup in it and held it up to my mouth. "I was just telling Audrey about everything that happened, you passing out on me and all."

"Also, I'm happy to know you've been reunited as brother and sister," Audrey grinned. My face must've conveyed my confusion because she quickly explained, "Noah argued with the ambulance driver at the bowling alley from hell that he was your brother until they finally agreed to let him ride with you."

"I swore I wouldn't leave you alone and I stuck to it," he explained, sitting the bottle on the bedside table and taking my hand back in his. "Your dad and stepmom have been here as much as me; they shot holes in the 'me being your brother' story, though."

That made warmth blossom in my stomach, my family actually came to the hospital with me? "I can't believe it. Did Jackson and Sophia come, too?"

"For a couple minutes, yeah," he said, but I could see there was more to it. "They weren't very happy about it, but your dad wasn't having it, turned into a total George Munroe. He told them to leave if they were going to be that way."

I had no idea who that as, but I figured he was from some movie. The only references he ever made were to some sort of movies.

"Let's talk about something else, anything else," I sighed, reaching over and rubbing Noah's arm. "Thank you, by the way."

His cheeks and the tips of his ears turned pink, but he didn't say anything. A couple minutes later, I slid over so Audrey could sit in the bed with me and while Noah told us his theory. He'd been hinting at it for a while now, I was curious about it too honestly.

"Will was kidnapped and Jake was stabbed, probably safe to take them off both of the killer board," he started, eyeing us dramatically. "Unless that's exactly what it was meant to do. Jake's on the mend, Will's wounded warrior act made Emma forgive his sins. Either one of them could have set up this entire fiasco just to convince everyone to trust them."

"I don't buy it, I looked into Will's eyes and saw genuine fear. I don't think he's doing this," I argued. "He and I were hurt too much, and I just don't see him every hurting someone on purpose. I just feel it in my gut and I'm starting to trust that instinct, it hasn't steered me wrong yet."

"Regardless, that's dark," Audrey said, trying to smooth over the tension brewing between us. "You going to share this theory with Emma?"

"I wouldn't just yet, she's been through a lot," I replied, leaning back against the pillows. "She's probably making up for lost time with Will right now."

"Nothing quite says I miss you like going at it in a hospital bed," Audrey mused, making me giggle and slap palms with her while Noah just shook his head.

Audrey's mom called a little while later and she left, swearing she'd come back tomorrow with pizza and movies. I hugged her and thanked her for being here before Noah and I were suddenly alone. He was looking at me before he timidly reached up to stroke my cheek with his thumb.

"I am so sorry I hit you in the face with a mop handle."

I don't know why, but that made me laugh. He looked at me like I was totally crazy and I probably was, I did almost die from getting stabbed by a crazy psycho killer in an abandoned bowling alley. I turned my head and kissed the palm of his hand, leaning my face against it.

"Thank you for always staying with me," I whispered.

"Uhm, I'm about to do something really crazy and hope you don't get angry with me for it," he told me nervously.

I just looked at him like he was the one that'd lost his mind. I was about to ask him what he was going on about when he cupped my face in both his hands and hesitantly pressed his lips to mine. My heart started racing and the monitor attached to my finger started going crazy. I felt my face heating up, but if Noah noticed it he didn't pause the kiss.

"Oh, well, this explains why he's been by her bedside since the accident," my father's voice broke through the haze Noah's kiss caused in my mind.

Noah jumped away from me and caused the chair under him to skitter backwards. He ended up falling flat on his butt in the middle of the hospital room with my dad, stepmom, stepsister, and stepbrother all looking at him like he was the biggest imbecile in the world. I mean he kind of was, but they couldn't think that.

"Hi," I said sheepishly, thankful my heart rate monitor finally started to go back to normal.

"The doctor's coming in to check on you," dad said, eyeing Noah in his spot in the corner. "Son, you can go now. I'm sure Gwen'll call you when she's back home."

"Right, sir, you're right," Noah said, tripping over his feet a couple times before he got to the door. "Bye, Gwendolyn. I'll talk to you later, don't die on me."

"Isn't your name Guinevere?" my stepsister asked after Noah left me with pink cheeks a faster heartbeat than what was medically safe I'm sure.

"Yeah, it is."

* * *

 **Thanks for reading, babes.**


	12. Chapter 12

**So I didn't edit this completely, I'm sorry! But I think it's going to be okay once you get to the bottom :)**

* * *

I was running out of black dresses to wear to funerals, something I never thought I'd have to worry about. Imagine the shock that went through the town when Will Belmont was literally sawed in half because of a trip wire set by the same psycho that stabbed me. Even more shocking, it was Emma that set off the trip wire and watched as Will got killed.

After the funeral, Audrey and I went home with Noah. We all sat on his couch in silence, none of us sure what to say about what was happening in Lakewood anymore. Will survived the bowling alley, he should've been safe from the game. By all horror movie logic, if you weren't the main heroine and you survived your murder attempt, you weren't messed with again.

"I have run out of words to say about what's happening," I finally spoke, breaking the silence enveloping the room.

"I feel so sorry for Emma," Audrey added.

Noah just sat there, his pinky rubbing against mine soothingly. The two of us weren't boyfriend and girlfriend just yet, but we did a lot of kissing when I got home from the hospital. My door always had to be open now, dad's stupid rule not mine.

Speaking of dad, my family decided it was time to actually be a real one now. We had dinner together every night since I came home from the hospital and my dad actually demanded to know where I was when I left. I know I should've been happier about it, but the entire situation left a bad taste in my mouth.

"Have you talked to her at all? She didn't look too good earlier," Noah finally spoke.

"No, she's not in much of a talking mood lately. Her mom says she's sleeping when I go over to check on her, but I know she's not," Audrey replied, running a hand over her face. "How can she sleep after what she saw?"

I shivered and curled into Noah's side, tucking my feet underneath me. He wrapped his arm around my shoulder and gestured for Audrey to come closer. She grumbled under her breath about being the third wheel, but I felt her cuddle up against my back with her arm around my middle.

I slipped my fingers between hers and pressed a chaste kiss on Noah's jaw. None of us were really friends with Will, but he and I were basically in the same boat last night. The only difference was he was dead now and I wasn't. There was a really good chance I could've died in the nasty bowling alley if he hadn't thrown himself onto the killer so we could run away.

"Even if he messed up, Will was a really good guy."

"Yeah, everyone makes mistakes," Audrey agreed, her voice muffled against my shoulder.

* * *

The next day I struggled to get out of bed. My side was hurting more than usual and I was out of contact solution. I just wanted to pull the covers up over my head and invite Noah over to cuddle me close. Unfortunately, that wasn't an option for me today or any day really.

I got up and showered, trying to gauge if I could make it without taking my medication today. The last thing I wanted was to develop an addiction to pain killers, it would just be the cherry on top of everything.

Like I mentioned earlier, I'm out of contact solution and the only member of the family that wears them. Great, awesome, wonderful. This was exactly how I wanted today to go, me in glasses with stitches in my side.

I looked in the full body mirror at the stitches on my back. The stab wound was almost under where my arm lay against my side. I couldn't see it unless I was looking at it in the mirror, making it very difficult to wash. I figured it out eventually, but it still ached sometimes.

My bathroom was attached to my room so I didn't get dressed, I just went into my room naked. The last thing I expected was for Sophia to be sitting on my bed. She shrieked and covered her eyes while I spastically reached for my robe, tying it tight around my middle.

"Okay, I'm clothed."

"Wow, I didn't expect you to walk in naked," she remarked once we'd calmed down a bit. "Uhm, do you want to talk about what happened? You know? Getting stabbed and everything was probably pretty crazy."

Her conversation was forced and awkward, kind of like she wasn't doing it of her own free will. "I know dad and Elizabeth told you to come talk to me. Just tell them I'm doing as well as to be expected considering everything that happened. I'm not going to jump off the roof or anything, if that's what they're worried about."

"I want to have a relationship with you, but you're so hard to talk to," she said in one breath. "You don't care what people think of you at all. You turn down Jake Fitzgerald, the hottest guy in Lakewood. You're unattainable and choose to have loser friends, but you're still one of the most sought after girls at school and you don't even realize it. Do you know how frustrating it is to be your sister?"

I was in the middle of putting on my panties when I froze, one leg in and one leg out. I moved enough to pull them on before turning to face her. There was no sign of sarcasm on her face, she just looked frustrated and hurt.

"Jackson and I are supposed to share the car, right?" I asked after I pulled them and my bra on with a t-shirt. When she nodded, I grinned, "How do you feel about skipping first period? I need to pick up contact solution."

She smiled and stood up, "Yes! Yes! And get some breakfast! That sounds awesome!"

I held my finger up to my lips in a shushing gesture before I turned around to finish getting ready. I also texted Noah that I would be late so he wouldn't worry, and trust me, that boy could worry with the best of them. A school full of mourning children was not something I wanted to experience, I wanted as much space from there as possible.

I finished getting ready and we rode to school with Jackson like normal. Except when we got there, Sophia and I stayed in the car. He looked at us with raised brows.

"What the hell? Get out, I've got to lock the doors," he said, leaning in while he held the door. "Soph, the middle school is right across the street. You can walk there, you do it all the time."

"No, Sophia and I are going to go get some breakfast," I replied, getting out and holding my hand out for the keys. "We share this car, remember? It's my turn to have my time with it."

"There's no way in hell, they just said we had to share so you didn't feel like the leper of the family," he sneered, his top lip raising and everything.

"No worries, Gwen, when mom and dad find out Lyssa Raider might be pregnant, Jackson's going to be the leper of the house," Sophia said before sliding into the passenger seat.

My jaw dropped in shock, Lyssa Raider was a freshmen. "You got a freshmen pregnant? Dad and Elizabeth are never going to let you leave the house again if you get caught!"

He glared at us and I expected steam to come out of his ears at any second. The keys hit my hand and I tore out of the parking lot before he could change his mind. Sophia was something else, I kind of like her. I also knew I needed to stay on her good side, I didn't want her blackmailing me into doing her bidding.

"How'd you know about that girl?" I asked as we got into the parkway to go to town.

"I recognized her sneaking out of the house the other night and into a car waiting on the street. The rest was just a guess," she grinned. "Look, I watch a lot of _Pretty Little Liars_ , okay? I know how to manipulate situations if I have to."

We stopped at Walgreens and I grabbed some contact solution along with a box of tampons. I didn't know if I was running low, but you could never have too many of them. That was something my mom always told me after I went through puberty.

"What's the story with that necklace? You always wear it," Sophia asked while we were getting rung up.

My hands stuttered as I tried to give the cashier the money. "Uh, my mom had the sun one that went with it. They were our thing, she was a morning person and I would be nocturnal if it was possible. I don't know, they were just our thing. She was buried wearing hers."

"Oh, I didn't mean to make things weird," she said immediately, reaching out and touching my arm comfortingly. "Do you still want to go get breakfast? I have mom's card."

"Yes! Most definitely," I grinned, taking my bag and headed back out to the car.

* * *

We got back to school right as first period let out. The lady at the front desk didn't even look up as I signed in, she just handed me a late slip and sent me on my way. I shouldered my bag and headed to my locker, a smile finding its way onto my lips when I saw Noah and Audrey talking beside it.

"Anyone ever told you it's rude to block someone's locker?" I asked, making the both of them jump in surprise. "Oh wow, I just interrupted something secretive."

"Hi," Noah grinned, wrapping me up in a hug and kissing the side of my head. "I missed you this morning. It's not as fun to sing to Disney songs without you, and I totally said that out loud and can't take it back. Oh my god."

I grinned and bit his shoulder playfully before I stepped back and hugged Audrey, too. "Okay, what did I miss this morning?"

"We were talking about the likelihood of Branson being the murderer," Noah supplied, reaching out and brushing some of my hair out of my face.

"So, if he's the killer, why would he take a job at a school instead of somewhere below radar?" I asked, leaning into Noah's side without thinking.

"He's hiding in plain sight," Noah told me like it was obvious. "Think about it, his classroom is a one-stop victim shopping. Pick one, slay one, console one, then repeat.

"Okay, what's his criteria?" Audrey asked, heading to a bench a little way down the hall for us all to sit on while we spoke.

I thought back to all the people who were murdered and took a shot in the dark. "Archetypes; Nina –the queen Bee, Tyler –the rebel, Riley –the brain, and now Will –the jock."

"If he's killing off the members of _The Breakfast Club_ , the only one left is the raccoon-eyed weird girl who wears only black," Audrey gulped. "And Gwen wears too much green for it to be her."

I sneered and bumped our shoulders, rolling my eyes. Do you know how much I get made fun of for wearing olive green? I can't help that it's my favorite color, okay?

"Or the weird girl's girlfriend, which might make sense with Rachel," Noah supplied, making Audrey glare at him. "Okay, maybe not."

"If Branson's thrill is hiding in plain sight or whatever and the classroom/teacher thing is his cover, then wouldn't any evidence condemning him be in there?" I asked, trying to sooth the tension between Audrey and Noah.

"He did seem pretty anxious when he caught us in there alone," Noah agreed, his cheeks dusting pink as he remembered that day.

"So maybe it's time we dig a little deeper…" Audrey suggested.

The bell for second period rang and Noah took my hand in his, leading the way to my class. We'd all agreed to meet up seventh period, our free period, and do a little bit of snooping. We stopped outside my chemistry class and he turned me around to face him.

"After all this is over, can I take you on a date?" he asked, his entire demeanor wracked with nerves. "Unless that's not where this is going and I'm making an ass out of myself right now."

"Nah, I just like to make out with random twitchy geniuses and get caught by my dad more than a couple times," I replied, looking up at him from under my lashes.

Instead of answering him, I slipped into class and found my regular seat. He was still standing outside the door when I looked over so I winked at him and made him almost fall.

Did I seriously make his knees weak?

* * *

"So you actually bonded with your sister this morning?" Audrey asked as we looked through the library together.

We'd all agreed to meet in the library and then sneak to Branson's classroom. Noah was late as always so Audrey and I were trying our best to pass time.

"Yeah, it was weird. She thinks I'm too cool to be her big sister or something like that. I don't know, it's all just a blur honestly."

"Wow! I said to meet outside Branson's classroom! This is not Branson's classroom!" Noah hissed, rushing over to us.

The librarian came out of nowhere and told him to be quiet. Audrey and I laughed into our hands, trying to keep from getting reprimanded like him. He just rolled his eyes and turned on his heel, expecting us to follow him and we did.

The hallways were empty because people were all in class, but Mr. Branson had a free last period. I kind of hoped Noah did his research to make sure he wasn't going to be in his classroom. Knowing Noah he was set on finding his information so much that he didn't do any backup research at all.

Thankfully the classroom was empty and Branson's briefcase was sitting on top of his desk just waiting for someone to look inside it. I raised my eyebrows in surprise, but he rushed over and pulled it up. Branson didn't change his password so he wasn't too suspicious of us snooping on him.

"What are we trying to find?" Audrey asked as the two of us gathered around Noah at the desk.

"I don't know, but with the malware gone, we need something more before we can call the sheriff," Noah replied absentmindedly, searching every folder on the desktop.

I heard a weird _thump_ noise along with the clack of Noah's fingers on the keyboard. Audrey's raised brows told me she heard the noise, too. She hit Noah's chest with the back of her hand and gestured over to me.

"I didn't make the noise, but I heard it," I said, moving toward the filing cabinet beside the desks. "I think it was in the vents or something."

We all went over to the vents and Noah pulled the vent off, which was way too loose and an instant red flag. Another instant red flag was the BIGGEST freakin' knife I've ever seen in my entire life.

"Holy Dexter's air container…" he breathed.

"You think that's…" Audrey started.

"…the murder knife?" I finished.

Noah reached in to grab it and I slapped his arm away immediately. "The last time we tampered with evidence, Emma's virgin video went viral! Let's not do that again."

A beeping sounded through the room and made me jump, losing my balance and falling to the ground. The action tore at my stitches and I just laid there for a second, praying to whoever was out there that I didn't rip them.

"God, Gwen, are you okay?" Noah crouched down beside me and helped ease me into a sitting position. "How's your side? Did you pop any stitches or anything?"

"Will you look for me?" I asked quietly, leaning forward and wincing as it kind of ached. "It kind of hurts, but it's hurt all day so it's okay."

I was leaning against Noah's bent knee as he raised my t-shirt. Not that I'd imagined it or anything, but this wasn't how I saw him taking my shirt off the first time. He gingerly touched the bandage around the wound and I tried to not wince too much.

"There's no blood on the gauze or anything. That's good, right?" he asked quietly, like we were the only ones in the room. "Are you okay? Does it hurt? We can go get your meds that you're supposed to take."

"I'm okay as long as I didn't rip my stitches," I told him, finally breathing normally. Then I looked at Audrey and saw the grin on her face. "Sorry, I was dramatic. I just seriously don't want to have to get more stitches."

"It's okay, you're fine. Please don't bleed on this floor and leave evidence we were here inappropriately," Audrey said, rushing over to us and offering me a hand to pull me up and then Noah.

"I want to see what Branson's real name is," I announced, moving over to the desk where Noah was running the search. "I mean I almost died getting down from that desk, I want to know dammit."

"We got a hit on Mr. Branson's real identity," Noah confirmed. "Now we have enough evidence to call the sheriff."

Noah went out into the hallway to make the call, leaving me and Audrey alone in the classroom. I sat down in my regular desk and Audrey sat in the one beside it, looking at me with that same grin from earlier.

"What's that look about?" I finally asked, giving her a pointed look.

"You and Noah are disgustingly adorable together," she told me, tapping her fingers on the desk. "I've never seen him this happy before, I just don't want him to be disappointed. I also don't want you to get hurt because you're my other best friend. I don't know, I'm in a weird position."

"I really, really like him. He's the reason I survived in Lakewood with my family and almost getting stabbed," I told her honestly. "The last thing I ever want to do is make him sad, Audrey."

The door pushed back open and Noah came in with an agitated looking sheriff on his heels. I guess he wasn't too happy about being called here by a bunch of teenagers when there was a murderer on the loose.

"Gwen, how're you doing?" he asked, noticing me in the room.

"You know, I have another hole in my body that'll leave me permanently scarred for life," I said dismissively. "I'll heal, it's cool."

Noah showed the knife in the vent, but the sheriff didn't pick it up. Even if it was in a plastic bag, I guess his training died hard. "Is there anything else?"

Noah nodded jerkily before going over to the computer on the desk. "Seth Branson used to be Seth Palmer. Back in 2013, he was teaching in this small liberal arts college in New Hampshire when he had this affair with an eighteen year old student."

"Which is disturbing but not illegal," Audrey added.

"But then the girl turned up dead with Palmer as a suspect until he disappeared. Then he became our Mr. Branson."

"So why were the three of you looking into him in the first place?" the sheriff questioned like we hadn't just given him an entire case.

"Seriously?" Audrey hissed. "There's a bloody knife in a bag, but you're concerned about how we found… Wait, do you think we planted this?"

"I just asked a simple question." The sheriff was trying to play games and it was beyond frustrating.

"There's a bloody knife in the vent in this guy's classroom. I got stabbed by some crazy person in a hepatitis filled bowling alley. If any of us were part of this, I feel like that wouldn't have happened," I told him, trying my best to keep my cool.

"Also, we found evidence that he was cyber-spying on the whole town, or at least helping Nina and Tyler do it," Noah quickly jumped in to keep me from being arrested for assaulting an officer.

"What evidence is that?"

"Malware, attached to his online homework site. I think Riley found out about it and then he killer her to keep her quiet." He was really good at setting the scene for the evidence we'd found. "And then he went and erased every trace of it, and he was conveniently 'out of town' during the whole bowling alley thing and then Will got killed."

Realization dawned on the sheriff for once and he seemed to be on the same wavelength as Noah for once. He pulled out his phone and dialed a number, "Mike, this is Hud. Put out an APB on Seth Branson."

"Well, that's Seth Palmer," Noah corrected. Then the sheriff looked at him with a raised brow and he said, "Right, I'll shut up now."

* * *

"You were quite the super sleuth today, a regular Sherlock if I say so myself," I said, playing with the buttons on his shirt.

We were up in my room together with Sophia in hers and Jackson at football practice. Elizabeth was at a boosters meeting for Jackson's team and dad was still at work. That meant my door didn't have to be open this time and I planned on taking advantage of it.

"This is the first time we've been alone in a while," I hinted, looking up at him from under my lashes.

"So it is," he played along, sliding his hand up and down my side gently. "How do you want to spend it?"

I bit my bottom lip before pushing him onto his back and straddling his hips. His eyebrows disappeared under his fringe of hair because they were raised so high. I kind of liked daze Noah, he was cute.

With my hands on his chest, I leaned forward and reconnected out lips. He sloppily kissed me back, trying to keep up with me even though he was still a bit dazed. One of his hands sat on my hip while the other rested on the bed by my knee.

Eventually, his lips started to move against mine and both of his hands rested on my hips. I was cupping his cheek in one hand with the other still pressed firmly to his chest. He took me by surprise by being the one to deepen the kiss, moving around until I was the one with my back against the bed.

"You're okay, right? That didn't hurt, did it?" he asked breathlessly.

Instead of answering him, I pushed his flannel off and slid my hand up the front of his shirt. He nodded jerkily and bent back into me, thoroughly kissing me and making my head spin a little.

There was a gap between my jeans and my t-shirt and his hand was resting on it. My pulse was racing and I felt too hot, but I never wanted to stop feeling like this. I pulled my mouth away from his to catch my breath, and he trailed kisses down to my neck.

I stretched out and let out a whimper when he kissed the spot directly under my ear. My cheeks started heating up, that was the most embarrassing sound I've ever made in my entire life. I was about to pull out of his embrace and hide under my covers forever when his grip tightened on my hips and he groaned.

"Dad just pulled into the driveway!" Sophia shouted from the other side of my door.

I groaned in annoyance and pushed Noah's chest up. "That was longer than I expected, honestly."

"Yeah, I might need a second before I leave," he breathed with his eyes closed.

My face squinched up with laughter as I covered it with my hands. "Oh my god, you're such a dork."

Wow, I sure knew how to pick 'em.

* * *

 **Thanks for reading!**


	13. Chapter 13

**Whoa, I totally fell off the face of the Earth for a while. But here's a new chapter! There's only one more episode left and it's quite the doozy!**

* * *

Apparently, Emma's mom had a kid with Brandon James before he died or whatever actually happened to him. Unfortunately, she didn't think this information was pertinent to mention to us until Audrey voiced her reluctance to believe Branson was the murderer. I kind of understood where Audrey was coming from, we had all these big puzzle pieces but were lacking the biggest connector piece of all.

"Okay, let me make sure I have all of this perfectly clear: Branson could be the kid your mother had with Brandon James and then put up for adoption? That could be the connection piece this entire puzzle is missing," I announced from my spot leaning against Noah on a couch at the coffee shop.

"Why didn't you tell us about this before, Emma? It's kind of important," Noah agreed.

"I was embarrassed and afraid you guys wouldn't want to be my friends anymore. It's awful how mom did it and kept things a secret," she tried to explain, desperate for us to be on her side. "After everything that happened, I couldn't lose you guys, too. I've lost too many people already."

"Em, we're still your friends and friends always deserve the truth," Audrey told her, squeezing her arm reassuringly. "Now that it's out in the open, we can move on from it."

"And move on to the Halloween dance that's basically the perfect playground for the killer on the off chance that it's not actually Branson?" I suggested, twisting my fingers with Noah's absentmindedly.

"But it's totally Branson! I mean, we found a bloody knife in the air duct in his classroom and big brother type malware on his computer," Noah argued, making me move away from him and sit up straight. "It's got to be him."

"Noah's right, it has to be Branson," Emma said. "He killed our friends and he needs to pay for what he did. I watched the love of my life get sawed in half because of it."

"Oh, so I guess that means you're not going with Kieran to the dance tonight then?" I asked, my frustration bubbling to the surface.

"Excuse me? Are you seriously asking me that right now?" she asked, eyeing me viciously. "I have been through a lot, okay? And Kieran listens and helps me."

"Yeah, and it's all the 'cry for Emma' show, right? No one else has lost anyone, just you. You're the only one that's allowed to be upset. I totally forgot!" I said cruelly, an uncharacteristic sneer working its way onto my lips as I looked at her.

Noah put his hand on my thigh before I could stomp out of the coffee shop dramatically. "Okay, we need to chill with the anger. Everyone's sad and frustrated, but yelling at each other isn't going to change or help anything. Just chill and let Emma explain everything, it's okay, Gwendolyn, everything's okay."

I was still fuming, but I knew he was right so I let him pull me back deeper the couch. I sat up straight this time and looked right at Emma. She has always kind of rubbed me the wrong way, even if they killer was targeting her and basically torturing her psychologically. I don't know, maybe there's something wrong with _me_ for thinking that, at this point it wouldn't even be much of a stretch. I wouldn't even be surprised if all of Lakewood was crazy now.

"The thing is, I could never figure out why the killer was so focused on my family," she continued, a little stiff but still trying to be inclusive. "But, I mean, if Branson is my family, then it all makes sense."

"Well, what happened when you sat across from him? I want the fava-bean-by-fava-bean recap," Noah replied, leaning forward like it would make him hear everything she said better.

"Well, he played it pretty cool," she admitted begrudgingly. "That's why I need to know for sure."

"Brandon's son, Bran-son," Noah said suddenly. "He picked that name, it redefines hiding in plain sight!"

"Okay, that's good and everything, but there's still no connection between Branson and Rachel," Audrey cried suddenly.

"Maybe we just haven't found the connection yet, Audrey," I reasoned, squeezing her hand only for her to tear it out of my grip. "They're harder to find in real life than they are on TV."

"The news reports don't even mention her name when they talk about the victims. It's like they forgot her suicide was staged," she sighed, her eyes growing glassy and allowing me to take her hand in mine this time.

"Audrey, you want to know the truth and we're going to help you find it," I promised, rubbing my thumb over the top of her hand comfortingly.

"Yeah, let's prove it beyond a doubt," Noah agreed, placing his hand over ours in the table. "Bi-curious and the Virgins are on it."

"And the crime world trembled," she replied, but I could hear the gratefulness in her voice as the three of us got up and left Emma sitting at the table on her computer.

We were walking out when Noah slammed into Piper Shaw. I hadn't talked to her since she'd kind of ambushed us at Nina's memorial at school. Noah consistently listened to her podcast when we were together, sometimes even choosing it over making out with me. That's how you know a boy is obsessed with serial killers, he'd rather listen to a crime podcast that kiss you. I tried to not let it lower my self-esteem…

"Piper! Hey, wow," Noah started, but I grabbed his hand and kept pulling him to the door with Audrey in tow. "We were just leaving, right. And, you know, for the record, totally not-"

I rolled my eyes and Audrey told him to stop, but the boy's word vomit was on a roll neither of us could stop now.

"Totally not a virgin," he finished, his cheeks red and mine getting their quickly. "Okay, go get 'em!"

I finally dragged him out of the coffee shop with Audrey laughing. "You are such a dork, oh my god. I highly doubt your virginity or lack thereof is going to make _Autopsy of a Crime_ , Foster."

He jutted his bottom lip out and I stood on my tiptoes to kiss him. Instead of being angry, I felt him take my hips and his lips turn up into a smile against mine. It wasn't anything too PG, but I heard Audrey groan in disgust anyway. We tried to keep the PDA to a minimum, it just didn't work out like that sometimes.

"I still want to know the connection between Branson, or whatever his name is, and Rachel," she said when we pulled apart and looked at her.

"Do you still have that SD card with all her footage on it?" I asked, opening the passenger door.

"Yeah, it's in my pocket," she said sheepishly. "I never leave home without it, it makes me feel closer to her. Don't judge."

"Never."

"I think she was suggesting some black hat level snooping," Noah supplied once we were all in his car. "Which is very hot, by the way, and totally doable."

He drove to the video game store and we holed up in the TV room like usual. The last time I was in here, I was laying on that couch with Noah on top of me and his mouth doing _very_ interesting things to my neck, but this wasn't the time for reminiscing.

"I have to find something that links them together. There has to be something," she muttered as she clicked through all the files.

We'd been sitting there for almost an hour when Noah said, "Never thought the life and times of a sexually-confused Catholic girl could be so dry."

"You wanna feel the sting of this sexually-confused atheist's foot up your butt?" she replied, pushing his hip with her Dr. Marten-clad foot.

"Hey, I made you microwave popcorn, okay?" he cried, scooting closer to me.

"Where is that? I didn't know Rachel or anything, but she didn't strike me as a bar scene kind of girl," I asked, pointing at the current video on the screen.

"It's the bar on Eighth Street, she actually loved sneaking in there with her hidden camera," Audrey laughed. "She got so much free drama: fights, flirts, old men swapping stories from the bottom of a bottle. Rachel loved all of it."

"We know how much you miss her," I said, getting up from behind Noah and moving over to wrap my arm around her. "We're always here for you."

"Rachel might be gone, but I'm going to make sure she's never forgotten," Audrey swore, fast-forwarding through some of the footage until Noah reached out and stopped her.

"Whoa, is that Nina?" he asked, pointing to the familiar redhead on the screen.

"An even better question: is that Kiran leaving _with_ Nina from a bar?" I asked.

"Shoot, it's getting late. I have to go set up for the dance," Noah groaned, glancing at the watch on his wrist. "Do you guys want a ride home?"

"I'm going to do a bit more snooping and then head out. I'll meet you at the dance, G?" she asked, not looking away from the computer screen.

"For sure, but text me if you find anything else," I said, hugging her before heading out of the store with Noah. "That is insane! Was Kieran hooking up with Nina, too? Emma's going to be crushed."

"Let's not jump to conclusions, we don't know everything yet. Let's just get you home so you can be the cutest Little Red Riding Hood in all of California," he said, winking at me while we waited at a red light. "Have I apologized for volunteering to deejay instead of being your date? Because I feel bad."

That made warmth fill me from the tips of my toes to the top of my head. I leaned as close to him as I could get with the console between us and pressed kisses up his neck and across his jaw. He pressed the gas a little too hard when the light changed and sent be jolting backwards away from him.

"Wow, sorry, that was not a good thing. You just distracted me and I didn't realize what I was doing, are you okay?" he said in quick succession.

That made me laugh and lean over to kiss his jaw one last time. "I'm fine, just a fractured spine, nothing to worry about."

* * *

I had just finished perfecting my eyeliner when Sophia came into my room. "Hey, Soph, can you braid the sides of my hair back for me while I put on these lashes?"

"Sure," she grinned standing behind me at my vanity stool. "You look so good! But dad's never going to let you leave in that skirt with those thigh highs."

I used my tweezers to get my eyelashes into place before replying to her. "That's why I'm not going to let him see me. I'm going to tell him goodbye from the entryway and slip out the door to the car where Jackson's going to be waiting."

"You are so good at being sneaky, Gwen!" she sighed, securing the braids back with a couple pins and spraying them so they'd stay put. "I wish I was as good as you."

"You have much to learn, young grasshopper," I told her, turning my body so we were facing each other. "And I am just the sensei to teach you."

I made it out of the house without a hitch and Jackson left the driveway without speaking to me. It was a perfect getaway. He was dressed as a caveman, more fitting than he would ever realize, and apparently had the vocabulary of one as well.

He parked at the school and we parted ways, him finding his girl of the week and me searching for my dork and Audrey. I ducked into a bathroom and maneuvered my way around the horde of girls to put my hood up over my hair. It looked a lot better and made me look mysterious, it also completed the costume but whatever.

"You're Gwen, right?" a girl dressed like Tinkerbell asked. When I nodded, she frowned, "Well, you need to get off your high horse already. Jake Fitzgerald is the hottest guy in school and he's only interested in you. So sleep with him already so we can have a chance, stop being such a fucking prude."

That actually made me laugh and Tinkerbell's frown deepen. "Be careful, Tink, forever's a long time to live with frown lines and there isn't enough clapping in the world to cure the STDs I'm sure that Neanderthal carries."

I clapped my hands twice for emphasis before walking out of the bathroom, giggles from the other girls following me. That was very impressive, I couldn't wait to tell Noah all about it. Or Audrey, she was the one that would probably care.

The dance floor was a cacophony of sounds coming from people in costumes, colored lights, and tons of fog billowing out around everyone's feet. It look so much like a school dance you could almost forget there was a psycho killer induced curfew when it finished. Almost.

"Just like I thought, the cutest Red Riding Hood in the world," Noah said, coming out of the deejay booth and up to me with his cape fluttering behind him.

He moved to kiss me, but I held up a halting hand. "No way, Count Dorkula, I don't want that fake blood on my face! It'll ruin my costume!"

"So picky," he tutted, making his fangs almost fall out of his mouth. "What have we here? A Steampunk lady with a soupcon of Goth."

I turned and saw Audrey walking up to us in a costume that looked exactly like what I imagined the inside of her head looked like. All dark colors and mixed fabrics, but it was super cool and I never could've pulled it off.

"And you're a master of ceremonies?" she asked, bumping her fist against mine in greeting. "And a little red?"

"At your service," I smiled, curtsying to her playfully. "Well, I tried to curtsy, but this tutu is too short and this thigh highs don't cover enough."

"I was gonna be the Babadook, but then my mom made this cape," he told us, twirling around so we got the full effect. "I couldn't break her heart."

"Yeah, well, I should tell Emma about Kieran, right?" she asked, completely changing the subject.

"What? No, Mr. Branson has to be the killer. I mean, I led the cops to their best evidence," Noah said in outrage. When I elbowed him, he quickly rephrased, "WE led them to their best evidence."

"Kieran was leaving a bar with Nina. Then Nina got dead. And he saw Rachel filming him," she said, ticking off the evidence on her fingers.

Before either of us could say anything, she disappeared into the crowds of people. I just let her go and turned back to my adorably dorky vampire boyfriend. He was already looking at me and waggled his eyebrows with his fangs nowhere near his mouth.

"I was wrong before, you're not the cutest," he said, moving closer to me and putting his hands on my waist and pulling me close. He leaned forward and brushed his lips against my ear before he breathed, "Sexy is a way better word."

Shivers coursed down my spine and my knees felt like Jell-O. Noah was _never_ like this when we were together. His eyes were droopy and I forgot about the fake blood, holding the sides of his neck and pressing our lips together. His grip on my hips tightened, making a quiet moan escape my lips and vibrate against his.

He pulled away and rested his forehead against mine, breathing heavily. "Whoa, I have to go before this song ends, but we have to finish this later."

I kissed the corner of his mouth before going on the hunt for Audrey. She was standing off the side with a cup of punch a glare. I made a beeline over to her and snagged her cup, taking a drink and wincing at the burn.

"You're getting drunk at a high school Halloween dance?" I asked, giving it back and crossing my arms. "I don't know if I should be impressed or disappointed."

"I told Emma about the video and she pretty much said I was crazy. That Kieran was no more the killer than I was, the killer was just filming and showing us things he wants us to see," she told me before taking another long drink. "Now I want to be drunk and go to Brooke's stupid party where I can get even drunker."

"Let's go find Noah and tell him your plans. He's going to help me tell you that you've lost your mind," I told her, taking her hand in mine and heading over to the deejay booth.

I got his attention and he jumped down, eyeing me saucily before looking at Audrey. "Do I smell whiskey?"

"Yes, help me tell Audrey getting drunk isn't going to make any of this better. This is not the time to be the stupid, drunk girl in horror movies," I begged.

Before he could say anything, the big screen showing some old black and white horror movie turned to color. The Sheriff was chained to a tree with a hook in his mouth, holding the rest of his body to the huge tree. I gasped along with the rest of the dance patrons and grabbed Noah's hand in mine, hiding my face against his chest.

"That says 'Branson has escaped and is armed.' That's not good," Noah breathed, holding me close and kissing the top of my head. "That's very not good."

* * *

 **Thaaaaaaaaaanks for reading!  
**


	14. Chapter 14

**Hey, guys! I cut this episode in half to increase the drama and am pretty happy with what direction it went in. I hope you guys like it, too!**

 **Also, I wrote a two-shot story about the first time Gwen and Noah had sex. It's called _Am I Not Muse Enough?_ and the link is on my profile! Go check it out and enjoy!**

* * *

The entire dance was chaos, Audrey disappeared again into the fray, but Noah kept a tight grip on my hand. At least the two of us would stay together, that was better than nothing. I was about to tell him we had to find her when Emma rushed over to the two of us.

"The killer called. He said that tonight's the big finale," she said in a rushed voice, clutching Noah's sleeve and looking at us with big, terrified eyes.

"Of course he did. A big, ill-advised Halloween dance," Noah exclaimed, normally I wouldn't chimed in with him in agreement but not now.

"Uh, guys, where's Audrey? I lost her after that screen came up," I asked, searching the hordes of freaked out teenagers for her.

"I saw her leave with Brooke and Jake, she's safe right now," Emma told me. "We have to find the Sheriff."

Noah had his phone out, his hand still clutched in mine, but there was a frown on his face. "I'm trying, but all my serious gear is back at the shop."

"We have to find it! We have to find the Sheriff!" Emma cried, taking Noah's shoulders in her hands and shaking him a bit.

"Okay, Em, it's okay," he reassured her, making her loosen her grip on his shoulders and stop shaking the both of us. "Gwen and I will go to the shop and get the stuff I need to find him. Then we'll meet you at your house. Okay?"

"Well, let's go then!" Emma said, turning and weaving her way through the dance patrons with Noah and me in tow.

"Sorry, guys, nobody leaves," the officer at the exit door told us.

"We need to go now or the Sheriff is going to die!" Noah exclaimed, and it would've been funny because of his costume if the situation was different.

The deputy had a short debate before stepping to the side and looking away as we slipped out the door. I guess she didn't want to be held responsible for our possible death and made it look like we'd made it past without her knowledge. Wow, Lakewood had some grade A police officers.

Once we were in the parking lot, Noah and I went to his car while Emma went to hers. I was thankful I'd stashed a bag of extra clothes in his trunk for times like this. Okay, that's a lie, it wasn't there for times like this. It was actually there from a sleepover at Audrey's that I lied about to hang out with Noah. And by hang out, I mean make out with him then fall asleep cuddled up in his bed watching slasher movies.

He anxiously waited for me to grab my bag before walking close to me until we were safe inside the shop. Me getting stabbed meant he never let me out of his sight when we were anywhere someone could hurt me. Even if I was a huge feminist, it was a nice feeling when someone cared about you enough they wanted to protect you.

"I'm going to go change while you get all your geeky gizmos," I teased, but it was lacking. I kissed the corner of his mouth and said, "Everything's going to be okay. This is all going to work out."

I tucked into a bathroom to change while he banged around. I shook out my braids after I changed and pulled the top of it up into a little bun. My makeup stayed the same as I zipped up my boots. When I went into the back, I saw Noah pulling a t-shirt on over jeans.

"Whoa, hi, I didn't see you there," he said quickly, pulling his shirt down and looking over at me with red cheeks.

I dug through my bag and pulled out my makeup wipes, taking one out before I walked over to him. His eyes held mine as I wiped the fake blood off the corners of his mouth gently, never breaking the eye contact –even when I wiped the black out of his eyebrows.

"You're kinda beautiful," I told him, tracing my fingers over his cheekbone once I'd finished removing the makeup.

"Shut u-" he started to say, but I cut him off with a kiss.

It was messy and fast, our teeth clacked together a couple times but didn't stop us. I pulled away from him long enough to heft myself up onto the corner of a desk before using the collar of his shirt to reconnect our lips. He rested his hands on my hips under my blouse and cardigan, scorching me to the bone every place our skin touched.

When I pulled back to catch my breath, his lip ventured down to my neck. With my fingers carded in his hair, I leaned my head back and let him have free reign. His grip on my hips tightened and his teeth ghosted over my pulse point, making the moan from earlier make a reappearance. God, this was so amazing –why did we wait so long to do this?!

His pocket started vibrating against my leg and made me laugh, ruining whatever moment was happening between us. He grinned and kissing my nose before answering Emma, quickly sobering up and reminding me what was at stake right now.

"Right, yeah, we have to go save the Sheriff," I breathed, jumping off the desk and adjusting my shirt while Noah grabbed his bag. "Right, let's go."

* * *

Emma must've been waiting at her door because she rushed out to the car the second he pulled in. She rode in the back this time while I rode shotgun. Noah's plethora of machines were scattered out on the dash and my lap where he glanced every once and a while as he drove through town.

"I've almost isolated the signal and I figured out why we can't reach people," Noah announced. "The malware doesn't just access webcams, it turns off ringers and notifications. So, they don't even know we've been trying to contact them."

"Oh, my god! That's insane!" I cried, my eyebrows knitting together in confusion. "This guy is isolating all of us."

"Oh, yes! I got it! The stream is coming from 1221 Sparrow Drive?" Noah announced, his dimples popping out. "Wait… isn't that Brooke's house?"

"Wait, Audrey and Jake are there, and I just sent Piper over there to check on them," Emma said, locking her phone after she sent the text. "And my mom is on her way to the Sheriff, this is going to work out. Everyone's going to be okay."

"This is insane!" Noah shrieked suddenly, swerving on the empty road. "We are willingly driving alone into certain death without a police escort!"

"No! No, we can't have any cops!" Emma told him, leaning up between the two front seats. "The cops can't help us."

"Bullshit, I think their guns can do some serious damage," I replied, looking at Emma with raised brows.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure they've got, like, big-ass guns and body armor and SWAT teams," Noah agreed, catching my gaze when he stopped at a red light. "This is America!"

"You guys, he said no cops, okay? We have to finish this ourselves," she told us desperately.

"We've got your back, Em," I told her, turning my body around so I was facing her completely. "We've had our differences in the past, but this is about more than us. They're my friends, too."

She took my hand in hers and squeezed it reassuringly. We might not like each other very much, but this was bigger than just us. It was up to we three to save the entirety of Lakewood, and that was only a _little_ bit terrifying.

"Well, if this is the final showdown, the killer's going to try and take out every single one of your friends, one by one until you're the only one that's left," Noah told us after I'd turned back around to face the front. "Because you're the survivor girl, Gwen's the pretty, virginal friend, and I'm your know-it-all sidekick.

"Oh crap, I'm gonna die," he said suddenly rubbing his forehead worryingly. "I am going to die, and it's my own fault for knowing so much. I'm going to die because I'm so smart!"

"You're not going to die, no one's going to die!" Emma argued. "Tonight, we're going to change the ending."

Without thinking I reached out and took his free hand, holding it with both of mine. I felt the tension in his shoulders lessen as he glanced over at me. I wanted to kiss him and hug him and tell him everything would work out, but I knew that wasn't going to be possible right now. My hope was he got that from my eyes, and the look he gave me in return told me he did and felt the same way. The two of us could apparently communicate with just looks, a new development for us.

Within the first ten seconds of arriving at Brooke's, there was already a dead body. "Oh, my god! It's Piper!"

"I'm gonna throw up!" Noah moaned from beside me.

"Come on, let's go look inside," I suggested, stepping around the body of the podcaster and leading the way into the house.

The three of us had just stepped into the house when I heard a floorboard creak. I held out my arm and halted Emma, gesturing to my ear for her to listen. Another creak sounded and her face paled: someone was in here with us.

We waited a beat before jumped around the corner, coming face to face with Kieran holding a gun. That was sketchy, especially considering there was the off chance he was the murderer. I held Emma's arm so she kept her distance, but she looked pissed instead of relieved.

"Emma, relax, it's me," he coaxed.

"Holding a gun." Maybe I judged Emma too harshly before, she was holding her own even when Kieran gave her pleading eyes. "Why didn't you call me back?"

"Well, I didn't feel much like talking after you accused me of murder," he replied in a curt tone. "My bad."

"You wanna put that down now?" Noah suggested, eyeing the gun nervously as his palm started sweating against mine.

He placed it in the back of his pants' waistband. "What are you doing here?"

Kieran looked at Emma, surprise apparent on his face. "You texted me to meet you here…"

"No, I didn't," she told him slowly.

He scoffed at her; he was obviously annoyed than any of us realized by Emma's accusations. "Well, I didn't send this to myself."

"Unless you did to convince Emma you're trustworthy because you're the one controlling the malware," Noah suggested, making Kieran glare at him.

When Noah said that out loud, I realized how crazy it really sounded. I decided to take control of the situation and asked, "What happened to Piper?"

"I don't know, I just got here," he replied, seemingly thankful for my change of conversation topics. "I saw her car and took a look around."

"I really want to believe you," Emma pleaded, pinching the bridge of her nose in desperation.

"Why would I hurt Piper?"

"Because she found out you might be the son of Brandon James," Emma shouted, making Noah and I immediately look at her in surprise.

"What?"

"Yeah, what?" I repeated.

"We talked to Cassie James and she said her grandson came to visit her," Emma explained to all of us. "Then she identified you, Kieran."

"And you believed her, a stranger, over me, your friend?" he asked, looking at her incredulously.

Emma went to talk to Cassie James with Piper instead of one of us? That was a little fishy to me, but I didn't ask any questions. Something about Piper always sat weird with me, but I couldn't place why. She always showed up right after something terrible happened and started snooping. I understood she was a journalist and that was her thing, but it was almost too perfectly orchestrated. I never told Noah about my theory because I knew he was obsessed with her and her podcast, he'd probably just think I was crazy or something.

"Noah, can I talk to you for a second?" I asked, pulling him into a big coat closet away from Emma and Kieran and closing the door. "Can I tell you something at the risk of sounding like I'm totally psycho?"

"You can tell me anything, Gwendolyn. You know that," he told me, only vaguely freaked out judging by his tone.

"Something about Piper makes me nervous. I don't know what it is, I just know it's something I can't get over," I admitted, looking at the toes of my boots instead of his inquisitive eyes. "She's always in the right place right after something happens, faster than anyone else. Isn't that weird to you?"

"She's a journalist, G, it's her job," he offered, taking my shoulders in his hands and squeezing them reassuringly. "You're just freaked, but you were stabbed and that's totally understandable."

He kissed my forehead and hugged me close, rubbing my back for a couple seconds. I should've went with my gut and kept that opinion to myself. Now he was going to think I was jealous of her or something. Guys' minds always jumped to jealousy when girls didn't like each other like there weren't thousands of other plausible reasons to dislike someone other than wanting what they had.

"We should go find the others. I don't like the thought of Audrey being in this house with the crazy killer on the loose," I sighed, pushing open the door without looking back to see if he was following me.

That was the last thing I did before pain exploded in the back of my head and everything went black.

* * *

 **Thanks for reading, guys! Don't forget to check out the two part story!**


	15. Chapter 15

**This is the final chapter of The Scream Team, and I can't believe it's lasted this long. I haven't been the best at updating, but you guys have been so awesome! Thanks so much for being so great and reviewing and just being all around cool people!**

* * *

I groaned before I opened my eyes, the back of my head throbbing. I winced and reached back, but my elbow hit something sturdy and made me swear under my breath. When I opened my eyes, I saw that it was black all around me and I was laying down on something. I tried to sit up, but my head slammed against something so hard I saw stars.

"What the hell? Where am I?" I asked nobody.

I pushed the pain to the back of my mind and took stock of where I was. It felt like I was sitting on carpet, but there wasn't enough room for me to fully stretch out. I had a sudden flashback of playing hide and go seek as a kid with a bunch of kids that lived on my block. I had the genius idea to hide in the trunk of my mom's Honda Civic, only to realize I couldn't get back out. I was stuffed inside a trunk, but whoever did it hadn't tied my arms or legs. The only thing working in my favor right now.

Someone grabbed me when I opened the door of the closet and knocked me unconscious. Oh my god, what about Noah? He was right behind me in the closet, did they hurt him? I thought about calling out to him but immediately squashed the idea. The killer didn't know I was conscious and it would buy me time to escape, then I'd find Noah. I just hoped he was okay right now and not in harm's way.

Like when I was trapped in the trunk of my mom's Civic, I started feeling around for a release handle, but there wasn't one. Then I remembered some cars had a spot you could push forward from the trunk in the backseat. It was a longshot, but it was about all I had to go on so I took the chance. I touched blindly until my fingers found a break in the fabric, and I pushed with both hands. It gave way and I saw into the barely lit backseat. Thank god for getting stabbed, it taught me how to keep my cool better than I realized.

Now came the challenge of fitting my body through the tiny hole. I could fit, if I squeezed and shimmied for all I was worth so that's exactly what I did. I pulled off my jacket and pushed it through first, taking off anything possible to make me slimmer. Then I took a breath and stuck my arms through followed by my head. My sides ached and I'm sure there would be bruises and scrapes, but I pulled my entire body through and laid in the backseat to catch my breath.

I redressed myself and pushed the seat back to its original position. I needed the killer to think I was still hopelessly trapped in the trunk for as long as possible. I almost grabbed the door handle and swung open the door, then I saw it was locked and probably had an alarm set just in case I escaped. I maneuvered myself into the front seat and clicked to unlock all the doors, sliding out and relocking them before I shut the door.

I was in the same garage we'd entered through earlier, but Piper was no longer lying on the ground. Either the killer decided to move her body or she was the killer, and I was theorizing it was the latter. I picked up a baseball bat from the floor and crept back inside, holding the bat at the ready to knock the shit out of anyone that came too close to me.

I was out on the back deck when I heard a shrill scream, a familiar scream. Noah was in trouble; I rushed as stealthily as I could over to him. I rounded the corner with the bat held high only to find Audrey and Noah on the other side, Noah gripping his chest and Audrey leaning against the wall with blood on her.

"Audrey! You're bleeding!" I said, lowering the bat and rushing over to her. "Are you hurt? Is this your blood?"

"It's just my shoulder, I'm fine," she said dismissively, then she tilted my head up and looked at me. "What about you? There's blood all in your hair and your nose looks like it's been bleeding."

I reached up and felt my nose, wincing when I realized how tender it was. That bitch must've hit me in my face while I was unconscious. What the hell?

"Oh yeah, that was my fault," Noah said from behind me. "The killer knocked you out and you fell flat on your face. It must've busted your nose."

I turned and wrapped my arms tight around him, kissing his jaw repeatedly. "You're okay! I was so worried you weren't!"

"I'm fine, the killer just left me in the closet until I woke up," he replied, kissing the crown of my head.

"What the hell? You got left in a closet and I woke up locked in a freakin' trunk? How's that fair?" I cried, leaning against him with my bat still in hand.

"You woke up in a trunk?" Audrey asked in surprise. "How are you here?"

"I might've escaped through the breakaway spot in the backseat and tripped the locks to quiet the alarm," I shrugged nonchalantly. "But I think my shirt's a no-go, it's pretty soaked in blood."

"Not to ruin this moment, but I see the rest of the Scooby Gang gathered inside," Audrey said, taking my hand and leading the three of us inside.

"You're alive!" Emma sighed when she saw the three of us. "I thought you were all dead."

"I'm bleeding, but I'll survive," I replied, nodding to the others. "Brooke, you look like you can't stand. Are you okay?"

"Considering I spent way too long in an ice chest, I'm great," she told me, pulling the blanket around her shoulders tighter. "Can someone please call a doctor so I survive?"

Noah glanced at his phone and said, "Cell phones are still out."

"There's a landline in the kitchen."

"A landline? What is this, 1996?" Jake asked, trying to lighten the mood but nobody laughed and he stepped back.

"Okay, you guys keep watch. I'm going to go call my mom and try and get some help," Emma told us before she disappeared to find the phone.

"I'm going to find a first aid kit," I announced, Noah following closely behind me as I walked away from the group.

We went into a bathroom and I looked under the sink, making a nose of excitement when I found it on the first try. That was the first bout of good luck we'd had a long time. Noah took the kit from me and lifted me, surprisingly, up onto the sink.

"Whoa, Mr. Strong," I cooed, placing my hand on the side of his neck. "What are you doing?"

"You're bleeding and I want to make sure you're okay," he told me, getting an alcohol wipe out of the kit and wiping it across the cut on my forehead and making me hiss. "Sorry, I don't want it to get infected."

I nodded and allowed him to clean me up and bandage the cut. While he was concentrating, I reached out and twisted his hair around my fingers. His fingers shook a bit and his cheeks turned pink, but he finished what he wanted.

"You're such a little badass. I can't tell you that enough," he breathed, leaning his forehead against mine gently and kissing my nose. "God, I love you."

We'd never said that before and butterflies exploded in my stomach. Noah's face was tight as he watched me, trying to figure out what I was going to say. As if I would ever say anything to him other than the same thing.

"I love you, too," I replied, kissing him. "I love you, I love you, I love you."

His shoulders lost some of their tension as he pulled me close, repeating the phrase against the fabric of my jacket. I could've stayed with him like that forever, but I knew that wasn't an option. I hopped off the sink and headed back to the others, getting to work on Audrey's shoulder. I handed Brooke the heat blanket and she actually thanked me, taking me by surprise.

Jake was rubbing her shoulders, trying to get her warm again and I saw the makings of a relationship. They were both mean-spirited with a heart somewhere underneath all the tar inside them. Maybe they'd be good for each other, stranger things have happened in Lakewood.

"How long has Emma been gone?" I asked after about ten minutes passed without her coming back.

None of them answered so Audrey and I went into the kitchen to find her. The phone was sitting on the countertop, but Emma was nowhere to be found. The stupid girl probably went on a wild goose chase to find the killer and get herself into all kinds of trouble.

Audrey and I had just made it the backyard door when we heard the gunshot. We didn't waste any time running to find where it came from. The others could've been behind us or still inside the house for what I knew, we just had to get to Emma. It could've been a trap, but I couldn't risk it not being one.

Mrs. Duval was sitting in a chair on the dock with Emma crouched beside her. I could just make out the shape of a gun in the sun's beginning rays. I guess Emma shot the killer and went to her mother, makes sense.

"You go tell the others what happened and call the cops. I'll go to them," Audrey told me, breaking away to go comfort the two of them.

I jogged back to the living room and told the others what happened, allowing Noah to pull me close to him after I called the police. We eventually caught up with Audrey and Noah wrapped his arms around the two of us. We'd made it out alive, despite everything, and I was happy.

"You got your classic showdown at the lake, tying together the past and present. And Survivor Girl in the back of an ambulance, just like somebody predicted," Noah said, kissing the side of my head.

"I knew it was Piper deep down, but it's still surprising because she tried to be our friend," I sighed, not letting go of Noah's waist.

"It's okay, today we're all in the back of that ambulance together. Except, not really, because we wouldn't all fit," he added, making me and Audrey laugh. "But you guys know what I mean."

"We do."

"I'm just glad we found Emma," Audrey said, hitting her palm against mine and giving it a squeeze before letting them fall back down.

"Can we talk about how much of a badass G was for a second?" Noah bragged, making my face heat up. "She broke out of a trunk and brought the heat with a baseball bat to protect everyone."

"Quite the crime fighter, Virgin," Audrey told me. "Both of you."

"Right back at ya, Bi-curious," I grinned.

* * *

Noah and I were sitting in the video game store, him getting ready to start the podcast. He took over for Piper and was insanely happy about it. I was just working on a paper, watching him smile and light up the entire room.

"Hey, guys, this is Noah Foster, local student and survivor of the Lakewood Slasher murder. I'm guest podcasting the final chapter of Autopsy of a Crime for your former host, the now-deceased criminal mastermind behind the killings, Piper Shaw," he said, making a scene for the audience and a smile appear for me. "So, having made it to the end of our very own slasher movie. I think we're all just processing what we've lost and how to move on.

"Staring death in the face has a way of making you want to be more forgiving. Maybe we'll find the loss of someone we loved may lead to the promise of someone new," he looked at me and winked before going on. "Maybe we'll see this as a second chance to do things differently and make a change for the good. Or to wipe the slate clean and re-invent ourselves as someone new."

He was right, my family life had become a lot better since the final showdown. We had dinner together at least once a week and talked about our lives. Jackson and I were still battling most days, but me and Sophia were really close just like sisters should be. Dad and I even talked about why he left me and mom and started a new family, giving me the closure I'd always wanted.

"At the end of the day, we're all just grateful that it's over and that the Lakewood Slasher is dead, but there's still on thing I can't figure out," Noah continued. "Piper Shaw confessed her crimes in classic villain fashion, but she didn't explain who attacked her and Will Belmont in that abandoned building. I mean, sure, she could've banged herself on the head and made up the story, but Will confirmed it later. Much as I love the good Hollywood ending, I can't help but wonder who was wearing the mask that night? Am I just overthinking it or is there more to come?"

He finished the podcast and came over to me, offering me his hand. "Come on, let's go get some ice cream and finish Making a Murderer at my house."

I shouldered my backpack and followed him out to his car. You'd think after everything that's happened he would be over his serial killer obsession, but somethings you just can't change. And I wasn't sure I wanted them to.

* * *

 **Again, thanks so much! I appreciate each and every one of you! Don't forget about Am I Not Muse Enough? my continuation of Gwen and Noah's story!**


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